Hallett Academy

Hallett Academy is a small PK–5 elementary school in Denver's School District No. 1, serving about 250 students in the northeast Denver area. The school serves a high-poverty community, with 81.6% of students qualifying for free/reduced-price lunch, and has a low student-teacher ratio of 11.4:1, yet it has consistently ranked in the bottom 10–20% of Colorado elementary schools over the past decade.

On the most recent state ranking, Hallett sits at the 12th percentile with a 1-star rating, placing it 826th out of 943 Colorado elementary schools. In 2025–26, only 24.7% of students were proficient in English language arts and just 13.0% in math, compared to state averages of 44.7% and 37.3%. The gap is starkest in math. Within the immediate area, schools like Westerly Creek Elementary (99th percentile, 78.8% math proficiency) and Park Hill School (95th percentile, 67.0% math proficiency) show dramatically better outcomes less than two miles away, though those schools serve far lower poverty populations. More notable is University Prep - Steele St., which serves an even higher-poverty population (89.2% FRL) yet achieves 34.7% math proficiency and a 32nd-percentile ranking.

Chronic absenteeism is a major challenge at Hallett, with 42.3% of students missing significant school in 2024–25, far above the state rate of 28.4%. By contrast, University Prep - Steele St. has just 3.6% chronic absenteeism despite similar demographics, suggesting school-level practices can make a real difference. Grade-level data shows some progress in ELA by 5th grade (34.8% proficient vs. 20.8% in 3rd grade), but math proficiency remains very low and fluctuates widely year to year, partly due to small class sizes. The school's greatest opportunities lie in improving attendance and investing in intensive math support, modeled after high-performing schools with similar student populations.