Summary:
The 80228 zip code in Lakewood, Colorado, contains four high schools within the Jefferson County School District No. R-1, serving grades 7 through 12 across a wide variety of school types. These schools could not be more different from one another, and their data tell a story of extreme educational inequality within a single zip code.
Green Mountain High School stands out as the clear academic leader. It enrolls 1,071 students and boasts a 97.4% graduation rate, far ahead of the district's 86.7% and the state's 85.6%. Its test scores are strong in science and reading/writing, though math proficiency is a notable hidden weakness — it trails district averages on the SAT and PSAT at every grade level. By contrast, McLain Community High School shows severe challenges: a 20.1% graduation rate, a 20.7% dropout rate, and 80.3% chronic absenteeism. Warren Technical and Longview High School are tiny alternative programs (32 and 20 students, respectively) with high chronic absenteeism (46.9% and 77.4%) and very low recent graduation rates. Longview has the highest poverty rate (85% free/reduced-price lunch), and both small schools have student-teacher ratios of 3.7 and 4.4, suggesting that small class sizes alone cannot overcome the challenges these students face.
The data show a strong correlation between economic disadvantage and school outcomes — Green Mountain has only 23.8% free/reduced-price lunch eligibility, while McLain sits at 60.5% and Longview at 85%. Chronic absenteeism is a systemic issue across all four schools; even Green Mountain (31.8%) exceeds the district rate of 26.6%. Data gaps also make accountability difficult: Warren Technical lacks current graduation and test data, and Longview has no recent ranking. For parents, this zip code offers two very different realities: a high-performing comprehensive high school in Green Mountain, and several option and alternative schools serving high-need students with much poorer outcomes.
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