Summary:
Zip code 81631 in Colorado’s Edwards/Eagle area contains two public high schools—Red Canyon High School and World Academy High School—both serving grades 9–12 within the Eagle County School District No. Re 50, an average-rated district where the two schools look very different from the district’s overall numbers.
The most striking contrast is attendance: Red Canyon High School has a 79.5% chronic absenteeism rate, nearly triple the state average and more than double the district’s 31.1%, while World Academy High School sits at just 13.0%. Red Canyon also struggles with a 55.3% graduation rate and a 7.9% dropout rate—roughly five times the state average. More than half of Red Canyon’s students qualify for free/reduced lunch, and its historical state rankings have consistently landed near the bottom of Colorado high schools. By comparison, World Academy has a much healthier attendance profile and a lower 2.2% dropout rate, but its graduation rate of 60.0% is still about 25 points below the state average of 85.6%. Interestingly, World Academy’s reported student-teacher ratio of 45.6 is implausibly high for a 53-student school, likely reflecting a tiny staff or a data reporting anomaly, whereas Red Canyon’s ratio of 10.2 signals smaller class sizes.
Together, these two schools serve only about 210 students, yet they illustrate how district averages can hide major challenges. Red Canyon appears to be a high-risk alternative-style school where chronic absenteeism is the central crisis driving its low graduation and high dropout numbers. World Academy, while better at getting students to show up, still sees many students fail to graduate on time. Parents evaluating this area should understand that even within one district, student experiences and outcomes vary enormously—and that the most urgent needs are concentrated at Red Canyon, where fixing the attendance problem would be a necessary first step toward improving any other academic outcome.
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