Summary:
Zip code 81052 contains one high school, Lamar High School, serving grades 9 through 12 in Lamar, Colorado, within the Lamar School District No. Re-2.
As the only high school in the area, Lamar High School sets the bar for local education, and its biggest strength is getting students to graduation. The 2024-2025 graduation rate was 96.6%, well above the state average of 85.6%. The dropout rate was also lower than the state. However, the school ranks near the bottom of Colorado high schools — 304th out of 338 in 2025-2026, a 1-star rating that has slipped over the past few years. The main reason is academic performance: proficiency rates in nearly every subject lag far behind state averages. Most concerning is math. On the 11th grade SAT, only 8% of students were proficient in math compared to 32% statewide. PSAT math scores for 9th and 10th graders were also roughly half the state rate, and science proficiency was just 11.3% versus 24.8% statewide.
There is some encouraging news in the lower grades. From 2024-2025 to 2025-2026, 9th and 10th grade PSAT reading and math scores improved, while the 11th grade cohort saw sharp declines in SAT reading, math, and science. Reading and writing performance also fades as students progress: 52% of 9th graders were proficient in PSAT 9 reading/writing, but only 27% of 11th graders reached that level on the SAT. With 68.19% of students eligible for free/reduced lunch, this is a high-poverty school, and chronic absenteeism affects about one in four students. Even so, the graduation rate remains a standout achievement, and the recent upward trend in younger students' test scores offers hope that future cohorts may close the academic gap.
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