The Colorado Department of Education collects data on every school district in Colorado. While some metrics -- such as graduation rates -- are well-curated and easily accessible online, many are not. KUNC compiled the most recent district numbers for easy access and visualization.
Do adjacent districts have similar test scores*? What differences can you find between rural and urban districts? How does your local district compare? Explore the map to find out.
Click on the icon in the top left corner and search by name or toggle around the map to view a specific school district. Each district location is provided by the Google Maps database.
What’s the relationship between graduation rates and standardized test scores*? Does a larger district tend to do better or worse on state assessments? Where does your district fit in? Investigate the graph to discover trends in district data.
Click any of the four drop down menus to select from more than 20 district metrics. While the labels do not change, numbers will update to reflect the variables you choose.
How many districts graduate all of their students? Roughly, what’s the most common graduation rate? Is your district better or worse than most? Choose the district metrics you want to learn more about on the histogram.
View the distribution of any school district variable. If you change the variable and the district boxes become too wide or tall, adjust the bin size by entering the difference between the first two numbers on the horizontal axis until the histogram shows the desired level of detail.
*Transitional Colorado Assessment Program (TCAP) was Colorado’s standardized assessment from 2011 to 2014. TCAP numbers reflect the rate of “Advanced” and “Proficient” scores per district by subject. Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) is Colorado’s current standardized assessment. CMAS numbers reflect the rate of scores that “Met Expectations” per district in English Language Arts (ELA) or Math.
Almost all the data come from the 2015-16 school year. Median income is from the period 2011-2015 and TCAP scores are from 2013-14 while CMAS scores, average teacher salaries, district sizes and ratios of students on free or reduced lunch are from 2016-17.
