Summary:
Zip code 81067 is served by two public schools in the Rocky Ford School District No. R2 in Colorado, together educating 576 students in grades K through 12: Rocky Ford Elementary School (K–6, 305 students) and Rocky Ford Junior/Senior High School (7–12, 271 students). The district ranks in the bottom 20% of Colorado districts with a 1-star rating, and both schools currently sit in the bottom quartile of their respective peer groups.
Comparing the two schools, the high school is the relative bright spot academically. It outperforms the elementary school in all-grades ELA (37.6% vs. 28.5% proficient), and its graduation rate of 87.8% exceeds the state average of 85.6%. The high school also posts a 10th grade PSAT Reading/Writing score (61%) nearly matching the state (65%), and its 8th grade science proficiency (32.6%) is close to the state's 35.4%. In contrast, Rocky Ford Elementary School shows a critical science weakness, with just 7.7% of 5th graders proficient versus 36.1% statewide — the largest single gap in the data. The elementary school does have one notable advantage: its chronic absenteeism rate is 24.3%, below the state average of 28.4%, while the high school's rate is a stark 45.5%, meaning nearly one in two secondary students is chronically absent.
Both schools share a systemic math challenge, with elementary math proficiency at 22.7% and high school math at 20.0% versus the state's 37.3%. College readiness signals are mixed: reading/writing skills improve dramatically by 10th grade, but SAT math for 11th graders is just 11% proficient versus 32% statewide. Despite favorable student-teacher ratios around 11:1 at both schools, test scores remain well below state averages, suggesting poverty and chronic absenteeism are larger factors than class size. The most urgent needs are secondary math, elementary science, and the high school's severe attendance problem.
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