Summary:
Zip code 80906 in Colorado Springs is home to three high schools — Cheyenne Mountain High School, Harrison High School, and Career Readiness Academy — serving a combined 2,433 students across grades 9–12 (Career Readiness Academy also includes grades 5–8).
The academic landscape is sharply divided. Cheyenne Mountain, part of the top-ranked Cheyenne Mountain School District No. 12, is a standout with a 95.6% graduation rate, only 12.4% chronic absenteeism, and a low 17.96% free/reduced lunch rate. It consistently ranks in the 90th percentile of Colorado high schools. In contrast, Harrison High School and Career Readiness Academy both belong to Harrison School District No. 2, a bottom-quartile district. Harrison serves 1,089 students with 72.45% qualifying for free/reduced lunch and chronic absenteeism at 50.3%. Despite test scores far below state averages, Harrison’s graduation rate is a bright spot at 92.2%. Career Readiness Academy, with only 69 students, faces the greatest challenges: 85.51% poverty, 83.2% chronic absenteeism, a 4.8% dropout rate, and a 69.2% graduation rate — even though it has the smallest class sizes with a student-teacher ratio of 8.6.
For parents, the key takeaway is that poverty and attendance drive outcomes more than school size or class ratios. Cheyenne Mountain offers a high-achieving, low-poverty environment with strong graduation rates. Harrison shows that a high-poverty school can still help students graduate, though academic proficiency lags. Career Readiness Academy demonstrates that small classes alone do not overcome severe absenteeism and economic disadvantage. The three schools in 80906 illustrate how one ZIP code can contain very different educational realities, making it essential for families to look beyond proximity and examine each school’s specific strengths and challenges.
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