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Honest take: what's the hardest part about being a student at DSST: Cedar Middle School?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
485
Middle
DISTRICT 447 · STATE 462
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·DENVER PUBLIC SCHOOLS·NCES 080336006572
DSST: Cedar Middle School
150 S PEARL STREET, DENVER, CO 80209 · (303) 524-6350 · Denver County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE11-CITYCHARTERTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL485 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
13.6:1
36 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 14.7:1 · STATE 15.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
51%
245 students
DISTRICT 68% · STATE 50%
Community
6
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other middle schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 157 | 32% |
| Grade 7 | 164 | 34% |
| Grade 8 | 164 | 34% |
Student demographics
71%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 64% · STATE 62% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
CMAS 2024-25 . % Met or Exceeded ExpectationsEnglish Language Arts
70.2%
CO avg 44.9% . +9.5pp since 2023
Math
54.6%
CO avg 36.1% . +5.0pp since 2023
What this means: On the CMAS, Colorado's statewide test, about 70 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 55 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Colorado schools, those numbers are about 45 and 36. Reading and writing scores are up about 10 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 5 points.
CMAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 70.2% | 54.6% |
| 2023-24 | 60.7% | 49.6% |
% Met or Exceeded Expectations, all students and all tested grades.
Source: CMAS. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
OUTPERFORMING
Top 10% of CO schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
57.5%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
36.1%
based on CO schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+21.4pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 57% of students here test proficient in math and reading, well above the roughly 36% typical for Colorado schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations ranks schools against others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school can post high scores and still fall short of its prediction, or post lower scores and still beat it. This school clears its prediction by about 21 points, placing it in Colorado's top 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like DSST: Cedar Middle School
DSST: Cedar Middle School's state test result (57.5% proficient) is higher than 5 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| DSST: Cedar Middle School this school | 485 | 50.5% | 57.5% |
| Hill Campus of Arts and Sciences DENVER | 651 | 51.9% | 28.5% |
| Horizon Middle School AURORA | 714 | 59.4% | 21.6% |
| Laredo Middle School AURORA | 846 | 50.4% | 33.0% |
| Carson Middle School FORT CARSON | 657 | 39.1% | 23.2% |
| Janitell Junior High School FOUNTAIN | 658 | 46.0% | 32.0% |
Matched among Colorado middle schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where DSST: Cedar Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Colorado | In Denver County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 57.5% | #30 of 241 | #6 of 30 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 54.6% | #28 of 244 ▲ 4 | #4 of 30 ▲ 2 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 70.2% | #18 of 246 ▲ 21 | #4 of 30 ▲ 2 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 485 | #121 of 278 | #8 of 30 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 13.6:1 | #46 of 227 | #8 of 28 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 71.4% | #4 of 227 | #1 of 28 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 50.5% | #124 of 246 | #24 of 30 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +2.3% | #47 of 55 | #12 of 14 |
Ranked against other public middle schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
485
-1 (0%) vs 2020
Student : Teacher
13.6:1
was 14.7:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 485 | 35.8 | 13.6:1 | 51% (245) |
| 2023-24 | 479 | 36.3 | 13.2:1 | 53% (256) |
| 2022-23 | 469 | 38.1 | 12.3:1 | 51% (239) |
| 2020-21 | 486 | 33 | 14.7:1 | 51% (249) |
| 2017-18 | 474 | 28.8 | 16.5:1 | 45% (211) |
| 2015-16 | 448 | 31 | 14.4:1 | 37% (165) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for DSST: Cedar Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students up 2% (474 to 485); teachers up 24% (28.8 to 35.8).
About DSST: Cedar Middle School
DSST: Cedar Middle School serves students in DENVER, Colorado, as a medium-sized middle-grades school. The school serves 485 students in grades 6 through 8 in 2024-25.
DSST: Cedar Middle School is run by Denver Public Schools, whose 198 schools enroll 90,471 students.
Federal enrollment data show White students as the largest group at DSST: Cedar Middle School, at 39%. Beyond that, enrollment is 31% Hispanic, 19% Black, 7% multiracial, and 4% Asian. The White share of the county population is higher, at 59%. Pick two students at random and there is a 71% chance they belong to different racial or ethnic groups; that figure is the school's diversity index.
DSST: Cedar Middle School operates with 35.8 full-time-equivalent teachers, a ratio of about 13.6:1. That is lower than the 15.9:1 average for middle schools in Colorado. About 51% of students at the school meet free or reduced-price lunch income limits. The 63% average for public schools in Denver County is 12 points higher.
On BeatsExpectations, which compares test results with what a school's student poverty level would predict, DSST: Cedar Middle School ranks in the top 10% in Colorado. Its average proficiency rate on state tests is 57.5%, against a prediction of 36.1%.
Among Denver County residents, the median household income is $94,718, about 57% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and the poverty rate is about 8%. Besides DSST: Cedar Middle School, Denver County has 205 other public schools.
The school nearest to DSST: Cedar Middle School is DSST: Cedar High School, at a distance of less than a tenth of a mile. A five-mile radius around the school includes at least 8 other public schools. DSST: Cedar Middle School places 3rd of 7 on proficiency among the closest schools that report scores.
NCES lists the school's locale as City: Large. That means it sits inside a principal city with a population of 250,000 or more. It is a charter school, open to the public and funded by taxpayers.
DSST: Cedar Middle School had 486 students in 2020-21 and 485 in 2024-25, nearly the same. The school's ratio fell from 14.7:1 to 13.6:1 between 2020-21 and 2024-25.
Parents and students can post about sports tryouts, band and choir, and theater at DSST: Cedar Middle School. Alumni can share how the school prepared them.
Denver County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
718,877
Census ACS
Median income
$94,718
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
57%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
8%
Below federal line
Schools in county
206
91,233 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Denver Public Schools
- East High SchoolHigh · 2,476 students
- Northfield High SchoolHigh · 2,137 students
- South High SchoolHigh · 1,950 students
- North High SchoolHigh · 1,653 students
- Thomas Jefferson High SchoolHigh · 1,390 students
- McAuliffe International SchoolMiddle · 1,329 students
Other schools in DENVER
- East High SchoolHigh · 2,476 students
- Northfield High SchoolHigh · 2,137 students
- South High SchoolHigh · 1,950 students
- North High SchoolHigh · 1,653 students
- Thomas Jefferson High SchoolHigh · 1,390 students
- McAuliffe International SchoolMiddle · 1,329 students
Nearby schools
- DSST: Cedar High School0.0 mi · 546
- Steele Elementary School0.5 mi · 452
- Lincoln Elementary School0.7 mi · 310
- Denver Center for International Studies at Fairmont0.9 mi · 344
- Denver Center for International Studies1.1 mi · 354
- Denver Justice High School1.1 mi · 106
Frequently asked questions
About DSST: Cedar Middle SchoolHow large is DSST: Cedar Middle School?
DSST: Cedar Middle School enrolls approximately 485 students in grades 06-08.
What age range does DSST: Cedar Middle School serve?
DSST: Cedar Middle School serves students from grade 06 through grade 08.
What is the student-teacher ratio at DSST: Cedar Middle School?
The student-to-teacher ratio at DSST: Cedar Middle School is approximately 13.6:1 (36 FTE teachers).
How diverse is DSST: Cedar Middle School?
DSST: Cedar Middle School reports a student body of 39% White, 31% Hispanic, 19% Black, 4% Asian, 7% Two or more.
Who oversees DSST: Cedar Middle School?
DSST: Cedar Middle School is overseen by Denver Public Schools in Denver County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.