Best Public Schools in Zip Code 81520

Zip code 81520 in Clifton, Colorado, is served by three public schools — Mount Garfield Middle School (grades 6–8), Rocky Mountain Elementary School (grades PK–5), and Clifton Elementary School (grades PK–5) — all within Mesa County Valley School District No. 51, a district rated above average in Colorado, yet these local schools trail district and state proficiency averages in every subject.

Among the three, Mount Garfield Middle School stands out as the strongest, earning the highest rank (286th out of 469 Colorado middle schools) and recording the best test scores: 34.1% ELA proficiency and 25.0% math proficiency. That is about 2.3 times higher than Clifton Elementary School’s 14.8% ELA rate and well above Rocky Mountain Elementary School’s 20.4% ELA rate. Among the two elementary schools, Rocky Mountain outperforms Clifton in both ELA (20.4% vs. 14.8%) and math (19.6% vs. 12.3%), and it ranks higher than Clifton, which has been stuck near the bottom of state elementary rankings for several years. Still, all three schools remain far below state averages, and Mount Garfield’s own 7th grade math proficiency is a weak spot at just 18.6%.

Chronic absenteeism is a serious concern, especially at Mount Garfield Middle School, where 54.4% of students were chronically absent in 2024–25 — about 26 points above the state rate. That means more than half of the middle school’s students missed significant school time, despite the school having the best test scores in the area, suggesting even stronger results could be possible if attendance improved. All three schools serve high-poverty populations, with free/reduced lunch eligibility ranging from 68.7% at Mount Garfield to 79.5% at Rocky Mountain. Notably, Rocky Mountain Elementary School has the lowest student-teacher ratio (13.6) but still posts very low scores, indicating that class size alone does not explain performance. Clifton Elementary School also lacks recent 2025–26 data, making its current status unclear, and there is no high school located within the zip code, so families must look outside the area for secondary education beyond 8th grade.