Colorado high schools aren’t sending many students to top colleges, report finds

Most Colorado high schools aren’t sending their graduates to the nation’s highest ranked colleges and universities, a new report finds.

Only 4 percent of high school graduates between 2009 and 2015 enrolled in schools such as the University of Colorado Boulder or Colorado School of Mines, according to A-Plus Colorado, an education reform advocacy group.

For the purposes of the report, A-Plus looked at graduates who enroll in the nation’s top 150 universities and top 150 colleges as identified by U.S. News and World Report.

“There are very few schools that are preparing and sending kids to top colleges, with incredible variation across the state,” said Van Schoales, the nonprofit group’s CEO. “Some parts of the state don’t send any kids to top schools.”

The picture is even grimmer for the state’s students of color and those who come from low-income homes.

While 22 high schools sent at least 10 percent of their graduates who come from more affluent homes to top colleges, only two high schools met the same mark for students from low-income families. Meanwhile, 17 high schools sent 10 percent of their white students to a top school, while only six sent the same proportion of black graduates. And just two sent 10 percent of their Latino students to a top university.

Here’s the list of the high schools that sent more than 10 percent of their students from middle-income homes to top schools:

• Peak to Peak Charter School, Boulder
• Aspen High School
• Fairview High School, Boulder
• Cherry Creek High School
• George Washington High School, Denver
• East High School, Denver
• Boulder High School
• Telluride High School
• D’Evelyn Junior/Senior High School, Jefferson County
• Animas High School, Charter School Institute
• Liberty Common Charter School, Fort Collins
• DSST: Stapleton, Denver
• Denver Center for International Studies
• Niwot High School
• Crested Butte Community School
• Rock Canyon High School, Douglas County
• Arapahoe High School, Littleton
• Denver School of the Arts
• Ridgeview Classical Charter School, Fort Collins
• Air Academy High School, Colorado Springs
• Lakewood High School

Here the list of high schools that sent more than 10 percent of their students from low-income homes to top schools:

• Peak to Peak Charter School, Boulder
• DSST: Green Valley Ranch High, Denver

The U.S. News and World Report rankings the report relied on have been criticized as more of a marketing scheme than an authoritative list that judges colleges on metrics that matter.

Originally posted on Chalkbeat, a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

Photo credit: Fort George G. Meade, Creative Commons, Flickr