Schools in Zip Code 81252

Zip code 81252 in Westcliffe, Colorado, is served by a small, rural K–12 system of three public schools totaling just 313 students, all within the Custer County School District Consolidate 1, which ranks in the lower quartile of Colorado districts. The three schools are Custer County Elementary School (PK–5, 146 students), Custer Middle School (6–8, 69 students), and Custer County High School (9–12, 98 students). About half of students district-wide qualify for free/reduced lunch, and student-teacher ratios are impressively low across all three schools, ranging from 9.6 to 12.9.

The relative standout is Custer County High School, which posts a 96% graduation rate—more than 10 points above the state average—and a dropout rate of just 0.7%, while also earning the district's highest state percentile (35th). Its 10th-grade PSAT reading/writing scores have matched or exceeded state averages, and 11th-grade science proficiency exceeds the state by 8.5 points. However, high school math remains a striking weakness, with only 14% proficient on the SAT. Custer County Elementary School shows a bright spot in 4th-grade English language arts (45% proficient, near the state's 47%), while Custer Middle School is the lowest-ranked school (24th percentile) but matched the state in 8th-grade science in 2024–2025.

The most consistent finding is a district-wide weakness in math, which lags behind English language arts and science at every grade level. Low student-teacher ratios have not translated into high test scores, suggesting that socioeconomic factors and small cohort sizes play a major role. Indeed, small enrollments make year-to-year data volatile—elementary ELA proficiency swung from 47.9% to 27.1% in one year. Chronic absenteeism is below state averages at all three schools, though the high school's 22.9% rate exceeds the district's 18.3%. While overall rankings are low, pockets of parity with the state exist in specific grades and subjects, indicating that targeted interventions—especially in math—could meaningfully improve outcomes for this small district.