Summary:
Zip code 80835 contains one middle school, Simla Junior High School, serving grades 6–8 in the rural community of Simla, Colorado. As the only middle school in the area, it serves as the sole option for families and belongs to Big Sandy School District No. 100J, a district ranked 14th out of 115 in Colorado with a 4-star rating.
Academically, Simla Junior High is a solid mid-to-upper tier school, ranking in the 68th percentile statewide for 2025–2026. Its greatest strength is 8th grade performance: math proficiency is 60.9% versus the state average of 37.8%, science proficiency is 52.2% versus 35.4%, and ELA proficiency is 60.9% versus 42.2%. The 7th grade also excels in ELA at 66.7% proficiency, well above the state’s 46.6%. However, math proficiency in 6th and 7th grades trails the state averages (28.0% vs. 32.7% and 27.8% vs. 32.9%, respectively), creating a sharp contrast with the strong 8th grade results. Overall, ELA proficiency for all grades is 51.5% (state: 44.7%), while math is 39.4% (state: 37.3%). Science proficiency jumped from 33.3% to 52.2% in one year, likely reflecting a strong cohort given the school’s small size.
With only 63 students, each child represents roughly 1.6 percentage points of a grade-level proficiency rate, so year-to-year swings can be large. About 54% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, yet the school still outperforms state averages in several areas. Chronic absenteeism is just 14.5%, about half the state average of 28.4%, and the student–teacher ratio is a favorable 9.7. The district’s dropout rate is also low at 0.6% compared to the state’s 1.6%. For parents in zip code 80835, Simla Junior High offers a strongly attended, small-school environment with notable academic peaks in 8th grade math and science, though 6th and 7th grade math remains an area to watch.
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