Sangre de Cristo Elementary School

Sangre de Cristo Elementary School is a small, rural PK–5 school in Mosca, Colorado, serving about 110 students and belonging to the Sangre de Cristo School District No. Re-22J, one of the top-ranked districts in the state. The school currently holds a 4-star rating and ranks 228th out of 943 Colorado elementary schools, placing it in the 76th percentile — far ahead of any other elementary school in the surrounding San Luis Valley region.

For parents, the headline is that this school excels at reading and writing. About 59% of students are proficient in English language arts, well above the state average of 44.7% and nearly double the proficiency rates at nearby Sargent Elementary School, Bill Metz Elementary School, Haskin Elementary School, and Alamosa Elementary School 3-5. Science is also a bright spot, with 43.8% of fifth graders proficient compared to 36.1% statewide. Math is the one area that falls short of the state average (32.7% vs. 37.3%), but it still beats every neighboring elementary school by 6 to 13 percentage points — a school-specific opportunity rather than a regional trend.

What makes these results extra impressive is the context: 56.4% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, and the school has climbed steadily from the 49th percentile in 2017–2018 to its current 76th-percentile ranking. Chronic absenteeism has also improved, dropping from 31.4% to 24.8% — below the state rate of 28.4%. Because the school is small, test scores can bounce around from year to year as cohorts change, but English language arts has stayed consistently strong, and the overall momentum is clearly upward.