Brush Middle School

Brush Middle School is a public school in Brush, Colorado, serving 328 students in grades 6–8 and operating as part of School District No. Re-2 Brush. The school holds a 1-star rating and ranks in the bottom fifth of Colorado middle schools — 378th out of 469 — with about 66% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Statewide, the district itself ranks in the 10th percentile.

Academically, the biggest concern for parents is math. Only 9.8% of Brush students scored proficient on the state math assessment, compared to 37.3% statewide and 19.8% across the district. That means roughly 9 out of 10 students are not meeting state math standards. English Language Arts results are also below average, but they reveal a striking pattern: 7th-grade ELA proficiency reached 32.7%, while 6th and 8th grades were just 13.5% and 14.5%, respectively. That gap suggests something is working in the 7th grade that could be applied to other grade levels. Science is the school's strongest subject, with 25.7% of 8th graders proficient — close to the state rate of 35.4% and ahead of nearby Fort Morgan Middle School's 19.5%.

Compared to Fort Morgan, which serves a similar high-poverty population just 9 miles away, Brush stands out in a few important ways. Chronic absenteeism is 23.1% — better than the state rate of 28.4% and far better than Fort Morgan's 31.5% — and the dropout rate is just 0.9%. However, Fort Morgan outperforms Brush in both math (15.0% vs. 9.8%) and overall ELA (25.2% vs. 22.5%). Brush has not shown a sustained upward trend over the past decade, but its relative strengths in science, attendance, and student engagement give it a foundation to build on. For parents, the urgent priorities are clear: targeted math intervention and more consistent literacy instruction across grade levels.