Summary:
Zip code 81435 is home to one high school, Telluride High School, which serves grades 9 through 12 with 298 students and is part of the highly rated Telluride School District No. R-1, a small mountain-area district ranked in the top 10% of Colorado districts.
Telluride High School is an exceptional institution, earning a 5-star rating and ranking 32nd out of 338 Colorado high schools for the 2025–2026 school year (91st percentile). Its graduation rate is an outstanding 97.9%, far above the state average of 85.6%. Students achieve remarkable scores on standardized tests, especially in 11th grade science (59.7% proficient vs. 24.8% statewide) and 11th grade math (64% vs. 32%). Reading and writing proficiency is also strong across all grade levels, with SAT scores at 86% proficient versus 60% statewide. While rankings have shifted slightly from 54th (85th percentile) in 2023–2024 to 25th (92nd percentile) in 2024–2025 and 32nd (91st percentile) in 2025–2026, the school consistently performs in the top 10% of the state. The student-to-teacher ratio is 15.4:1, and about 30.87% of students receive free or reduced lunch, indicating economic diversity alongside high academic achievement.
One area of concern is chronic absenteeism, which stands at 32.9%—higher than both the district (29.1%) and state (28.4%) rates. Additionally, math proficiency shows a downward trend in the 2024–2025 data, dropping from 65% in 9th grade to 61% in 10th grade and 55% in 11th grade, suggesting that maintaining early math gains through junior year is a challenge. Because this is the only high school in the district, all district-level scores and graduation rates mirror the school’s own performance exactly. Overall, Telluride High School delivers top-tier results in a small, supportive environment, with exceptional graduation rates and test scores, but families should be aware of the absenteeism rate and the need for sustained math support in the upper grades.
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