Best High Schools in Zip Code 80237

Zip code 80237 is served by a single high school, Thomas Jefferson High School, which enrolls 1,390 students in grades 9–12 within School District No. 1 in Denver. This is a sizable, socioeconomically mixed school, with just over half of students (50.9%) eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, and it is the only high-school option in this area, so all comparisons below are to its district and state averages.

Thomas Jefferson stands out as a relatively strong performer within its district, beating School District No. 1 on nearly every measure. Its graduation rate is 87.3%, above both the district (81.9%) and state (85.6%), and its dropout rate of 3.0% is below the district average of 3.2%. On the 11th-grade SAT, the school surpasses both the district and state in reading/writing (63% proficient vs. 52% district and 60% state) and mathematics (36% vs. 33% and 32%). Science is also a clear strength, with 28.4% proficiency on the 11th-grade CMAS exam compared to just 18.2% for the district and 24.8% for the state. However, the school’s statewide percentile rank has slipped from the 54th percentile in 2023–2024 to the 48th percentile in 2025–2026, with its star rating dropping from 3 to 2 stars — meaning other Colorado schools are improving faster even though raw scores remain fairly stable.

The biggest concerns are attendance and early high-school test performance. Chronic absenteeism is 41.4%, nearly 1.5 times the state average of 28.4%, and the dropout rate is nearly double the state’s 1.6%. While 11th graders outperform the state, 9th and 10th graders lag on PSAT exams, especially in math: only 34% of 9th graders and 36% of 10th graders are proficient, versus 40% and 39% statewide. The good news is that 9th-grade math proficiency jumped from 28% to 34% in one year, while 10th-grade reading/writing fell from 62% to 57%. In short, Thomas Jefferson is a solid school relative to its district, but its high absenteeism and weaker underclassmen scores suggest a need for earlier interventions to build a more consistent path to success.