Barnum Elementary School

Barnum Elementary School in Denver, CO, serves 334 students in grades PK–5 in the Barnum neighborhood as part of School District No. 1. While the school’s statewide ranking (12th percentile, 1-star) and overall proficiency rates are low — 24.4% in ELA and 19.3% in math vs. state averages of 44.7% and 37.3% — Barnum is actually one of the better-performing traditional elementary schools in its immediate area. Its ELA score is essentially tied with Goldrick Elementary School (24.3%) and well above Munroe Elementary School (9.2%) and Eagleton Elementary School (14.9%). Its math proficiency is second-highest among nearby schools with reported scores, trailing only Goldrick’s 26.0%.

The most encouraging signal is momentum. Over the past three testing cycles, Barnum’s ELA proficiency nearly doubled from 12.8% (2022–23) to 24.4% (2025–26), and math proficiency more than doubled from 8.2% to 19.3%. The statewide percentile rose from the 2nd in 2023–24 to the 12th in 2025–26. A clear bright spot is 4th-grade math, where Barnum’s 21.7% proficiency was the highest among every nearby school reporting that grade. Chronic absenteeism is a challenge at 43.8%, but that’s notably better than several neighbors — Cowell Elementary School is at 56.5% and Munroe at 55.4% — and Barnum still posts higher test scores than most of them.

One concern is a gender gap: female students rank at the 10th percentile statewide, while male students rank in the bottom 4%. Historically, Barnum showed exceptional results with English Language Learner students, ranking 5th in the state in 2018–19, though recent subgroup data aren’t available. The school’s student-teacher ratio of 15.6 is higher than many similar schools, yet Barnum still outperforms schools like Eagleton and Cowell with more adults per student. Overall, Barnum is showing real upward progress in a high-poverty context, making it a school worth watching despite its low absolute scores.