Miami/Yoder Elementary School

Miami/Yoder Elementary School is a small, rural PK-5 school in Rush, Colorado, serving 173 students in the Miami-Yoder Joint District No. 60. In the 2025–2026 school year, the school placed 463rd out of 943 Colorado elementary schools, landing at the 51st percentile with a 3-star rating — a meaningful jump from the prior year's 33rd percentile. That's especially notable given the school's high-poverty population: about 65% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Miami/Yoder also stands out within its own district, which ranks in the 24th percentile statewide. For example, the school's all-grade English Language Arts proficiency was 35.5%, compared to 29.8% across the district.

The school's clearest academic strength is 5th-grade reading. In 2025–2026, 57.7% of 5th graders were proficient in ELA, comfortably above the state average of 49.9% and far ahead of nearby Calhan Elementary School (22.2%) and Ellicott Elementary School (24.2%). Fifth-grade math was more modest at 34.6%, but still about 20 points above Calhan and 15 points above Ellicott. All-grade ELA proficiency of 35.5% also led both of those neighboring schools, even while remaining below the state average of 44.7%.

Miami/Yoder does face real challenges. Its student-teacher ratio of 21.6 is far higher than nearby schools like Calhan (13.6), Ellicott Elementary School (14.8), and Edison Elementary School (8.3), suggesting larger class sizes. Chronic absenteeism affects 26.3% of students — better than the state average but well above Calhan's 10.6%. Science is the relative weak spot, with 26.9% of 5th graders proficient, below the state's 36.1%. Historical rankings have also been volatile, swinging from the 26th to the 55th percentile over the past decade. Still, the most recent jump to the 51st percentile is encouraging, and strong reading results despite high poverty and larger classes suggest genuine resilience worth watching.