Summary:
Southwestern CUSD 9 includes five schools: two elementary schools, two middle schools and one high school. Results vary noticeably by grade and subject, but the clearest concern is at Southwestern High School: its 2025–26 proficiency was below the state in every reported ACT and PreACT subject and grade, with ACT gaps of 15–16 percentage points.
Shipman Elementary School and Medora Intermediate School stand out in their strongest tested grades. Shipman exceeded state results in both ELA and math in grades 3 and 4, by 24 and 12 points in grade 3 and 21 and 3 points in grade 4. Medora’s grade 5 science was 72%, 24 points above the state’s 48%; its ELA was 73%, 18 points above the state. Southwestern Middle School was strong in grade 7—14 points above the state in ELA and 12 in math—but below state results in grade 8 ELA and math by 7 and 14 points, while its grade 8 science was 11 points higher. No test scores or low-income measure are supplied for Brighton North Primary School.
Recent trends differ by school level: the three schools with year-to-year all-grade IAR figures held roughly steady in ELA relative to the state, while their average math gap improved by about 2 points; the high school’s ACT gaps widened by 10 points in ELA, 5 in math and 10 in science from 2024–25 to 2025–26. SchoolDigger’s 2025–26 rankings place Shipman at the 72nd percentile, Southwestern Middle at the 56th and Southwestern High at the 23rd; Shipman’s percentile has eased from 78 in 2023–24. For context, free/reduced lunch eligible students made up 41%–47% at the four schools with reported figures in 2024–25, while student–teacher ratios ranged from 11.7 at the high school to 15.9 at Brighton North.
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