BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of CO schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
13.1%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
28.6%
based on CO schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-15.6pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 13% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 29% typical for Colorado schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual.
How this is calculated →What is CMAS?
Colorado public-school students in grades 3 through 8 take the Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) in English Language Arts and Math each spring. Science CMAS is administered at grades 5, 8, and 11.
What does "% Met or Exceeded Expectations" mean?
It is the percentage of students at the school who scored at "Met Expectations" or "Exceeded Expectations" on the CMAS 5-level performance scale (Did Not Yet Meet, Partially Met, Approached, Met, Exceeded). Met and above is Colorado's grade-level benchmark. A higher number is better.
What does 13.5% mean for English Language Arts at Fort Lupton Middle School?
It means about 13.5 percent of students tested at Fort Lupton Middle School performed at grade level or above on the CMAS English Language Arts test in 2024-25. The statewide average for Colorado that year was 44.9%. The other students fell into the lower performance levels.
How is the state average calculated?
It is a weighted average, not a simple average of each school's number. We multiply each public school's score by how many of its students tested, add those together for all schools in Colorado, and divide by the total students tested that year. This way a big school with 1,500 students counts more than a small school with 50 students, which is the right way to ask "how did the typical student do this year?". District and county averages on this page use the same method, just scoped to that district or county.
Where does this data come from?
Colorado Department of Education (CDE), Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS). School-level overall results published annually by CDE. Headline metric is the cumulative "Met or Exceeded Expectations" rate (top 2 of CMAS's 5-level performance scale).
How often is it updated?
CMAS is administered once a year (spring). Results are released by the state in the summer or early fall. We refresh this page after each annual release.
