Summary:
There is exactly one middle school serving zip code 81147: Pagosa Springs Middle School, a grade 5–8 school in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, operated by Archuleta County School District No. 50 Jt. With 484 students and a student-teacher ratio of 16:1, it serves a majority economically disadvantaged population, as 54.75% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
Academic performance tells a somewhat mixed story. In the 2024–2025 school year, the school's English Language Arts proficiency was 46.6%, slightly above the statewide average of 44.8% and well above the district's 41.4%. However, the most recent 2025–2026 data shows ELA proficiency dropped sharply to 39.6%, now 5.1 points below the state average of 44.7%. Math is a far larger concern: only 23.4% of students were proficient in math in 2025–2026, compared with 37.3% statewide—a gap of nearly 14 points. The school's internal gap between ELA and math is also much wider than the state's: 16.2 points versus 7.4 points statewide, suggesting math instruction deserves focused attention.
Attendance is perhaps the most urgent issue. The school's chronic absenteeism rate is 39.6%, essentially the same as the district's 39.5% but 11.2 points above the state's 28.4%—meaning nearly 4 in 10 students are chronically absent. Given the strong link between attendance and achievement, this likely contributes to the recent test declines. Historically, the school has hovered in the low-to-mid 240s in statewide rankings (41st–47th percentile, 2 stars) during 2016–2019, indicating a consistently average-to-below-average position. For parents, this school provides a small, familiar setting where ELA performance has at times matched the state despite economic challenges, but math achievement and attendance are areas that clearly need improvement.
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