Deer Trail Junior-Senior High School

Deer Trail Junior-Senior High School is a small, rural combined junior-senior high school in Deer Trail, Colorado, serving 153 students in grades 6–12 as the only secondary school in the Deer Trail School District No. 26J. The school currently holds a 1-star rating and ranks 301st out of 338 Colorado high schools (11th percentile) — a steep decline from its 4-star, 83rd-percentile performance in 2006–2007.

Academically, the school trails both the state and nearby rural peers. CMAS English Language Arts proficiency has improved dramatically, from just 6.8% in 2023–2024 to 29.5% in 2025–2026, but remains about 15 points below the state average of 44.7%. Math is the biggest concern: 7th-grade math proficiency sits at just 12%, PSAT 9 math at 14%, and CMAS math at 16.9%, all far below state averages. By comparison, Byers Junior-Senior High School, located just 11.6 miles away, has 7th-grade math proficiency of 34.4% and a graduation rate of 97.6% — despite serving a similar rural population. Notably, Deer Trail has a lower student-teacher ratio (12.4:1) than Byers (22.5:1), yet still lags significantly, suggesting the challenge is less about class size and more about instructional quality or other factors.

The picture is not all negative. Deer Trail's graduation rate of 88.9% exceeds the state average of 85.6%, and its dropout rate has fallen from 7.0% to 1.4% — now below the state average. Chronic absenteeism has improved to 18.6%, well under the state rate of 28.4% and far better than Strasburg High School at 36.4%. The school also compares favorably to the online options in the Byers School District No. 32J, such as Colorado Virtual Academy High School and Astravo Online Academy High School, which have graduation rates around 44–50%. In short, Deer Trail students are showing up and staying in school, but far too few are meeting grade-level academic standards — especially in math.