Best Public Schools in Zip Code 81635

Zip code 81635 in Parachute, Colorado, is home to 4 schools within the Grand Valley School District No. 16, serving students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade with a combined enrollment of about 1,212 students. The district ranks near the bottom of Colorado (113th out of 115 districts) and all schools operate in a high-poverty context, with 60% to 69% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch.

Relative to the group, Grand Valley High School is the clear standout. It is the only school in the zip code with any SchoolDigger stars, ranks in the 22nd percentile among high schools, and its SAT Reading/Writing proficiency of 61% actually matches the state average. However, its math proficiency is critically low at 13%, and chronic absenteeism is 29.4%, the highest in the district. Bea Underwood Elementary School is the most improved, moving from the 1st to 4th percentile and raising ELA proficiency from 11% to 15.8%, though those numbers remain far below state averages. On the other end, Grand Valley Middle School has declined sharply from the 13th percentile to the 2nd percentile over two years and is now the district’s weakest-ranked school. Grand Valley Center for Family Learning serves only PK–1 students, so it has no test scores, but its chronic absenteeism of 22.4% is below both the district and state averages.

Math is a systemic crisis across the district: proficiency rates range from 5% in elementary and middle school to 13% on the high school SAT, versus state averages of 32–37%. Reading and writing are less uniformly weak, but still far below state levels in earlier grades. Graduation and dropout rates at the high school are worse than state averages (80.2% vs. 85.6% graduation; 2.6% vs. 1.6% dropout), and even the middle school reports a 1.0% dropout rate. Student-teacher ratios are moderate at 14.6–16.5, suggesting poverty and instructional supports, rather than class size alone, are driving outcomes. The unusual grade configuration—a PK–1 center followed by a 2–5 elementary school—adds an extra transition for young students. Overall, these are among the lowest-performing schools in Colorado, with Grand Valley High School providing the only bright spot, especially in reading and writing.