Summary:
Zip code 80102 in Bennett, Colorado, is served by a single middle school: Bennett Middle School, part of Bennett School District No. 29J, which educates 281 students in grades 6 through 8. Because it is the only middle school in the area, the most useful comparisons come from looking at the district and the state of Colorado as a whole. The school's performance ranks in the bottom decile of Colorado middle schools, and its standing has worsened in recent years.
In 2025-2026, Bennett Middle School ranked 428th out of 469 Colorado middle schools (9th percentile, 0 stars), a decline from the prior year when it ranked 390th (17th percentile, 1 star). Academic proficiency is well below district and state averages in every tested subject. In English Language Arts, 19.5% of students were proficient compared to 44.7% statewide; in math, 13.2% were proficient versus 37.3% statewide; and in 8th-grade science, proficiency plummeted from 24% to 9% year-over-year. The 8th grade cohort is notably weak, with the lowest ELA proficiency (11.2%) and math proficiency (10.1%) among all grade levels.
Chronic absenteeism is a significant concern, with 30.8% of students chronically absent versus 23.4% in the district and 28.4% statewide. The school serves a substantial economically disadvantaged population, with 42.7% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, and the student-teacher ratio of 21.7 to 1 limits individualized attention. On a positive note, the school had a 0.0% dropout rate in the most recent data, and the district's 1.0% dropout rate is below the state's 1.6%. The district has shown improvement in ELA and math, but Bennett Middle has not kept pace — its ELA proficiency dropped from 23% to 19.5% while the district rose from 27.7% to 32% — making the school's academic struggles and chronic absenteeism the most urgent areas for attention.
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