Summit County students are trailing their peers across the state in the latest round of standardized testing, but doing better than many of their High Country neighbors.
Colorado has just released CMAS (Colorado Measures of Academic Success) results for the 2023-2024 school year. This is the standardized test taken by every student from third to eighth grade.
Here in Summit, 34.2% of students met or exceeded math standards and 44.1% met or exceeded in English and Language Arts. Both scores were about five points behind state average.
But local students scored better than any neighboring county in both subjects: 2.2 points better than Eagle County schools in math, 5.3 points better than Clear Creek in English, nearly 16 points better than West Grand on the math test.
West Grand, including Kremmling, had one of the lowest scores in the state with fewer than 13% of students meeting or exceeding math standards. East Grand, home to Winter Park-area schools, scored significantly better.
Summit vs other mountain towns
But compared to other mountain resort counties? Summit and our neighbors are on the low end, trailing schools in Winter Park, Aspen, Telluride, Crested Butte and Steamboat in all subjects.
Steamboat Springs is No. 1 in the ski town rankings, scoring roughly 20 points better than state average in math and 25 points better for English — some of the highest scores for any district statewide.
Summit vs pre-pandemic
Compared to the pre-pandemic benchmark of 2019, testing across the state is a mixed bag. Some districts are improving, like Aspen-area schools in math, while most others are struggling.
Summit students are in the struggle camp, testing at 2.5 points behind 2019 in math and 9.5 points behind for English.
MOUNTAIN TOWN SCHOOL RANKINGS 2024 (meet or exceed standards on CMAS)
State average | Math: 34.2% English: 44.1%
- Steamboat | Math: 54.5% English: 69%
- Telluride | Math: 48.9% English: 64.7%
- Aspen | Math: 42.3% English: 51.2%
- Winter Park/East Grand | Math: 37.2% English: 48.6%
- Gunnison/Crested Butte | Math: 34.2% English: 44%
- Summit | Math: 29% English: 39.7%
- Clear Creek | Math: 28.9% English: 38.8%
- Eagle/Vail area | Math: 26.8% English: 39.4%