Summary:
Zip code 80807, serving the Burlington area in eastern Colorado, contains just one middle school: Burlington Middle School, which serves grades 5 through 8 with an enrollment of 206 students. The school is part of the Burlington Public School District No. Re-6j and has a student-teacher ratio of 15.8. A significant 65% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, indicating a high-poverty student population.
Burlington Middle School holds a 1-star rating and ranks in the bottom 20% of Colorado middle schools, with its state percentile slipping from the 25th percentile in 2023-24 to the 20th percentile in 2025-26. Academic proficiency is below state averages across nearly every subject and grade. English Language Arts proficiency is consistently low, ranging from 19% to 26% across grades 5 through 8, compared to state averages of roughly 42% to 50%. Schoolwide math proficiency is just 13.2% versus the state's 37.3%, though there is a bright spot: 8th grade math proficiency reaches 31.6%, just six points behind the state average of 37.8%, compared to a 33-point gap in 5th grade math. Similarly, 8th grade science proficiency at 27% comes much closer to the state's 35.4% than the 5th grade science result of 8% versus the state's 36.1%.
Despite the academic challenges, there are positive indicators worth noting. Chronic absenteeism at Burlington Middle School stands at 23.9%, which is better than both the district rate of 30.5% and the state rate of 28.4%. The school also reported a 0.0% dropout rate in 2021-22. However, year-over-year performance declined in most subjects: ELA proficiency dropped from 29.3% to 21.8%, math fell from 15.6% to 13.2%, and 5th grade science slipped from 11.6% to 8%. The one notable improvement was 8th grade science, which rose from 18.9% to 27%. In a high-poverty context, these mixed results suggest that while the school struggles overall, the upper grades show pockets of effectiveness that could serve as a foundation for future improvement.
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