Carmel Community School

Carmel Community School is a K-8 school in Colorado Springs, CO, serving 490 students within Harrison School District No. 2, where nearly 88% of students qualify for free/reduced-price lunch and chronic absenteeism affects roughly half of the student body. The school's statewide ranking has been volatile, landing in the 12th percentile (829th of 943 Colorado elementary schools) in 2025-26 — a modest improvement from the prior year but still well below its 21st-percentile position in 2023-24.

Academic proficiency lags well behind district and state averages across every subject. In 2025-26, just 17.2% of Carmel students were proficient in ELA, compared with 32.8% across the district and 44.7% statewide. Math proficiency was even lower at 12.9%, and only 8.8% of 8th graders passed science. While a few nearby schools score lower — Adams Elementary School (11.6% ELA) and Monroe Elementary School (10.9% ELA) — several high-poverty neighbors do much better. Mountain Vista Community School, a K-8 school less than a mile away in the same district, posts 47.8% ELA and 28.1% math proficiency with a far lower absenteeism rate. Monterey Elementary School and Rogers Elementary School also dramatically outperform Carmel in math.

Carmel's strongest results appear in the early grades — 3rd grade math at 26.7% and 4th grade ELA at 27.0% — but proficiency falls sharply by middle school, with 6th grade ELA at 13.0% and 7th grade math at 11.1%. Chronic absenteeism, at 50.9%, is the most urgent concern; it is nearly double the state rate and higher than every nearby Harrison D2 school. On a positive note, the student-teacher ratio dropped from 16.6 to 11.9, one of the lowest in the area, though this investment has not yet shown up in test scores. For parents, Carmel is a school facing significant challenges, but the improved staffing and slight rank uptick offer modest hope for stabilization.