Mountainside Elementary School

Mountainside Elementary School in Fort Carson, CO, is a PK–5 school serving 346 students as part of Fountain School District No. 8, and it currently holds a 1-star rating with academic outcomes in the bottom fifth of Colorado elementary schools. While the school benefits from a relatively favorable student-teacher ratio of 14.4 and a chronic absenteeism rate (21.6%) that beats its district and state averages, test scores tell a more challenging story. On 2025–2026 CMAS assessments, just 25.8% of students were proficient in English Language Arts, 15.8% in math, and 12.8% in 5th grade science—all well below district and state averages. Math proficiency is especially low, at less than half the state rate, and science proficiency dropped nearly 18 points in a single year.

Mountainside is the lowest-performing school in its district for math and science, trailing Patriot Elementary School and Weikel Elementary School despite having smaller classes and better attendance. Even Abrams Elementary School, which has a much higher free/reduced lunch rate, outperforms Mountainside in every subject except ELA. The contrast is even starker less than a mile away: Pinon Valley Elementary School and Cheyenne Mountain Elementary School—both in the high-performing Cheyenne Mountain School District No. 12—post ELA proficiency rates near or above 64% and math rates above 67%. More relevantly, Widefield Elementary School of the Arts, with a higher poverty rate, achieves 58.9% ELA and 49.1% math proficiency, proving that demographic challenges alone do not determine outcomes.

There are bright spots worth noting: 4th grade ELA proficiency actually met the district average, and chronic absenteeism improved over the past year. However, 3rd grade ELA proficiency sits at just 10.3%, a 28-point gap from 4th grade that suggests early literacy instruction needs urgent attention. The school’s ranking has fallen steadily from the 58th percentile in 2018–2019 to the 16th percentile today, and subgroup performance—including for low-income students—has dropped sharply from earlier highs. For parents considering this school, the good news is that class sizes are reasonable and attendance is solid. The concern is that these structural strengths are not translating into academic growth, and nearby schools, including those with greater economic disadvantage, show what is possible with the right instructional focus.