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What's the state of after-school transportation at Independence Academy?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
491
Elementary
DISTRICT 331 · STATE 379
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·MESA COUNTY VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 51·NCES 080435001980
Independence Academy
675 29 RD, GRAND JUNCTION, CO 81504 · (970) 254-6850 · Mesa County
GRADES PK–08ELEMENTARY13-CITYCHARTERTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL491 STUDENTS
A-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 78% of Colorado public elementary schools
- BTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- A+Beats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Colorado public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
17.3:1
28 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 15.9:1 · STATE 16.6:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
88%
430 students
DISTRICT 54% · STATE 50%
Community
6
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 30 | 6% |
| Kindergarten | 46 | 9% |
| Grade 1 | 48 | 10% |
| Grade 2 | 50 | 10% |
| Grade 3 | 53 | 11% |
| Grade 4 | 52 | 11% |
| Grade 5 | 51 | 10% |
| Grade 6 | 56 | 11% |
| Grade 7 | 57 | 12% |
| Grade 8 | 48 | 10% |
This year's kindergarten class (46) is about the same size as its 8th grade class (48).
Student demographics
27%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 45% · 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
49.2%
CO avg 44.9% . +0.8pp since 2023
Math
34.2%
CO avg 36.1% . -7.3pp since 2023
What this means: On the CMAS, Colorado's statewide test, about 49 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 34 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Colorado schools, those numbers are about 45 and 36. Reading and writing scores have held steady since 2023, while math scores are down about 7 points.
CMAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 49.2% | 34.2% |
| 2023-24 | 48.4% | 41.5% |
% 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
44.4%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
13.6%
based on CO schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+30.7pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 44% of students here test proficient in math and reading, well above the roughly 14% 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 31 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 Independence Academy
Independence Academy's state test result (44.4% proficient) is higher than 5 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Independence Academy this school | 491 | 87.6% | 44.4% |
| Harrison School CANON CITY | 472 | 71.0% | 30.3% |
| Dos Rios Elementary School GRAND JUNCTION | 293 | 79.5% | 26.9% |
| Rocky Mountain Elementary School CLIFTON | 395 | 79.5% | 17.7% |
| Nisley Elementary School GRAND JUNCTION | 346 | 81.5% | 17.8% |
| Clifton Elementary School CLIFTON | 346 | 75.4% | 14.6% |
Matched among Colorado elementary 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 Independence Academy ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Colorado | In Mesa County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 44.4% | #381 of 931 | #12 of 26 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 34.2% | #480 of 940 ▼ 108 | #17 of 27 ▼ 4 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 49.2% | #386 of 946 ▼ 5 | #15 of 27 ▼ 4 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 491 | #256 of 1,056 | #1 of 30 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 17.3:1 | #687 of 896 | #20 of 26 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 27.3% | #833 of 896 | #21 of 26 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 87.6% | #65 of 983 | #2 of 27 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +22.8% | #52 of 200 | N/A |
Ranked against other public elementary 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
491
+53 (+12%) vs 2020
+111% since 2010-11, when it was 233
Student : Teacher
17.3:1
was 18.3:1
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 | 491 | 28.4 | 17.3:1 | 88% (430) |
| 2023-24 | 487 | 30.2 | 16.1:1 | 32% (158) |
| 2022-23 | 485 | 28.4 | 17.1:1 | 24% (114) |
| 2020-21 | 438 | 24 | 18.3:1 | N/A |
| 2017-18 | 400 | 20 | 20.0:1 | 7% (27) |
| 2015-16 | 365 | 16 | 22.8:1 | 0% (0) |
| 2010-11 | 233 | 14 | 16.6:1 | 18% (43) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Independence Academy.
Since 2017-18: students up 23% (400 to 491); teachers up 42% (20 to 28.4).
About Independence Academy
GRAND JUNCTION, Colorado, is home to Independence Academy, a mid-sized elementary school. Its grade span covers pre-K through 8, with 491 students on the rolls. Elementary schools in Colorado average about 379 students, which makes this school 30% bigger than average.
Mesa County Valley School District No. 51 has 20,344 students spread across 45 schools.
The share of students at Independence Academy who are White is 84%. Enrollment also includes 12% Hispanic and 2% multiracial. Mesa County residents are about 82% White, a similar share. Its diversity index, the chance that two randomly chosen students belong to different racial or ethnic groups, is 27%.
Independence Academy lists 28.4 full-time-equivalent teachers; that is about 17.3 students per teacher. By comparison, the average for elementary schools in Colorado is 16.6:1. About 88% of students at Independence Academy are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The 53% average for public schools in Mesa County is 35 points lower.
On the allk12 Grade, Independence Academy lands at A-, ahead of 78% of Colorado public elementary schools.
Independence Academy is 30.7 points above expectations on state tests, given its student poverty level, placing it in the top 10% in Colorado.
Looking at the county, Mesa County, the median household earns about $73,658 a year, 32% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 7% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Counting Independence Academy, Mesa County has 57 public schools.
Straight-line distance to the nearest public school, Nisley Elementary School, is about 1.3 miles. Within five miles are at least 8 other public schools. On average proficiency, Independence Academy is 1st of 6 nearby schools with test data.
Its NCES locale code is City: Small: the school is inside a principal city with a population under 100,000. Independence Academy is run as a public charter school.
The school's enrollment rose 12% from 2020-21 to 2024-25.
Independence Academy has a community page on allk12 for topics such as pickup and drop-off, after-school programs, and teacher feedback. You can also rate the school on this page.
Mesa County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
158,601
Census ACS
Median income
$73,658
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
32%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
7%
Below federal line
Schools in county
57
22,232 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Mesa County Valley School District No. 51
- Grand Junction High SchoolHigh · 1,832 students
- Fruita Monument High SchoolHigh · 1,427 students
- Central High SchoolHigh · 1,352 students
- Palisade High SchoolHigh · 1,073 students
- Fruita Middle SchoolMiddle · 690 students
- Redlands Middle SchoolMiddle · 632 students
Other schools in GRAND JUNCTION
- Grand Junction High SchoolHigh · 1,832 students
- Central High SchoolHigh · 1,352 students
- Caprock AcademyCombined · 871 students
- Redlands Middle SchoolMiddle · 632 students
- Orchard Mesa Middle SchoolMiddle · 560 students
- Bookcliff Middle SchoolMiddle · 525 students
Other Independence Academy schools
One other US public school is named Independence Academy. Independence Academy is the 2nd largest of the 2.
- INDEPENDENCE ACADEMYDOVER, FL · 811 students
Nearby schools
- Nisley Elementary School1.3 mi · 346
- Fruitvale Elementary School1.4 mi · 358
- Bookcliff Middle School1.5 mi · 525
- Orchard Avenue Elementary School1.8 mi · 319
- Career Center Preschool1.9 mi · 53
- Thunder Mountain Elementary School1.9 mi · 432
Frequently asked questions
About Independence AcademyHow many students attend Independence Academy?
Independence Academy enrolls approximately 491 students in grades PK-08.
What grades does Independence Academy serve?
Independence Academy serves grades PK-08.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Independence Academy?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Independence Academy is approximately 17.3:1 (28 FTE teachers).
What is the racial breakdown of students at Independence Academy?
At Independence Academy, the student body is approximately 84% White, 12% Hispanic, 1% Asian, 2% Two or more.
Who oversees Independence Academy?
Independence Academy is overseen by Mesa County Valley School District No. 51 in Mesa County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.