Colorado’s Top Elementary School is in Five Points, According to New Ranking

The Mile High City might not have the top high schools or universities in the nation, but Denver can boast that the best elementary school in the state is tucked away downtown.

According to US News and World Report, which releases rankings for education, health, travel and more, the best place to send your Colorado kiddos for an education is Polaris Elementary, a small school at 410 Park Avenue West in the Five Points neighborhood.

The “Best Colorado Elementary Schools” list by US News came out on October 27, largely weighing schools on their test scores. Polaris is an “arts integrated magnet school” within Denver Public Schools, according to the elementary school’s website. It serves first to fifth grade, leaving out kindergartners, and only admits students designated as “highly gifted” by DPS.

US News only ranks elementary schools by state, but with more than 80,000 elementary schools in its directory, including those that teach sixth to eighth grades, but it doesn’t release a national list. This year’s ranking looked at about 1,000 elementary schools in Colorado and their collective scores in annual Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) exams. The rankings also considered the test results “in the context of socioeconomic demographics,” according to the methodology by US News, with teacher-to-student ratios used for tie-breakers.

In August, the Colorado Department of Education announced that Polaris students had the highest average scores in the most recent CMAS. Polaris also had the highest mean CMAS math and arts scores among any school in Colorado, including middle and high schools, and has achieved that feat in previous years as well.

According to US News, about 92 percent of Polaris students scored at or above proficient levels for math and 95 percent for reading. The school only has nineteen full-time teachers, but with an estimated 340 students, that’s a cozy eighteen-to-one student-teacher ratio.

Polaris also topped Colorado in both reading and math proficiency by US News, which adds that students there are “well above expectations” in terms of how they score on CMAS in those areas each year.

The school’s demographics are mostly white, according to US News, at about 59 percent, while 55 percent of students are male. Hispanic students account for about 12 percent of the student population while about 10 percent are Asian and 3 percent are Black, according to the rankings. Meanwhile, around 15 percent are counted as “economically disadvantaged.”

While most students have to wait until their older to take electives, Polaris allows elementary students two Friday afternoon elective classes in arts, sports, languages and other topics. Volunteers and parents teach some of the electives, as well, according to Polaris’s student handbook. The school is in a historic, 100-year-old building originally known as Ebert Elementary School, which was designed by Temple Hoyne Buell, the namesake of the Buell Theater, according to the Denver Architecture Foundation.

Aside from Polaris, the only other DPS schools to make the top ten in Colorado are Slavens K-8 School in the Wellshire neighborhood in south Denver, which ranked ninth, and the William Robert School Ece-8 in Central Park snuck in at tenth place.

The William Robert School, which serves kids from early childhood education through eighth grade, is the largest school in the state’s top ten, with 850 students.

DPS wasn’t the only Denver district represented, though. Coming in eighth place is Challenge, a K-8 school in east Denver that’s part of the Cherry Creek School District.

All but three schools in Colorado’s top ten are in the immediate Denver area. High Peaks and Bear Creak elementary schools, both in Boulder, placed sixth and seventh, respectively. Just above those, Zach Elementary in Fort Collins sits in fifth place.

Most of Colorado’s top five elementary schools are in the Denver suburbs. Park Core Knowledge Charter School, which came in fourth, is in Parker, while Aurora Quest K-8 ranks third and Dennison Elementary in Lakewood sits in second.

Here’s the full ranking of Colorado’s best elementary schools:

1. Polaris Elementary School
2. Dennison Elementary School
3. Aurora Quest K-8
4. Parker Core Knowledge Charter School
5. Zach Elementary School
6. High Peaks Elementary School
7. Bear Creek Elementary School
8. Challenge School
9. Slavens K-8 School
10. William Roberts Ece-8 School