Wiley Junior-Senior High School

Wiley Junior-Senior High School is a small, rural school in Wiley, CO, serving 115 students in grades 6 through 12 within the Wiley School District No. Re-13 Jt. The school has seen a significant drop in its state ranking over the past few years, falling from the 51st percentile in 2023-24 to the 20th percentile for 2025-26, a decline that parents will want to investigate.

Academically, Wiley is a school of contrasts. On one hand, it excels in keeping students on track: graduation rates have consistently been above 92%, and dropout rates are extremely low. The school also offers an excellent student-teacher ratio of about 11 to 1, which should allow for significant individualized attention. However, test scores tell a different story. Math proficiency is a persistent weakness, with only 24.2% of students proficient in 2025-26 compared to the state average of 37.3%. While 8th-grade science scores were slightly above the state average, other subjects struggle. This is made more striking when compared to McClave Undivided High School, a similarly sized school just 7 miles away that ranks in the 92nd percentile with 70.3% math proficiency. Wiley's performance is far closer to Lamar High School, one of the lowest-performing schools in the state, despite having a lower poverty rate than Lamar.

There are a few bright spots and areas for optimism. The school's chronic absenteeism rate of 17.2% is well below the state average, though higher than the district's own rate. More importantly, a strong record of graduating students suggests a supportive environment. The main challenge for Wiley is to translate its relational strengths into higher academic achievement, particularly in math. Given that McClave proves a comparable rural school can achieve excellent results, Wiley has a clear roadmap for improvement if it can stabilize its performance and learn from its higher-achieving neighbor.