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Honest take: what's the hardest part about being a student at Merrill Middle School?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
611
Middle
DISTRICT 447 · STATE 462
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·DENVER PUBLIC SCHOOLS·NCES 080336000379
Merrill Middle School
1551 SOUTH MONROE STREET, DENVER, CO 80210 · (720) 424-0600 · Denver County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE11-CITYREGULAR SCHOOL611 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
17.1:1
36 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 14.7:1 · STATE 15.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
39%
239 students
DISTRICT 68% · STATE 50%
Community
5
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 | 197 | 32% |
| Grade 7 | 200 | 33% |
| Grade 8 | 214 | 35% |
Student demographics
59%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
66.5%
CO avg 44.9% . +2.7pp since 2023
Math
53.7%
CO avg 36.1% . -6.9pp since 2023
What this means: On the CMAS, Colorado's statewide test, about 67 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 54 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 3 points since 2023, while math scores are down about 7 points.
CMAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 66.5% | 53.7% |
| 2023-24 | 63.8% | 60.6% |
% 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
59.8%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
43.0%
based on CO schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+16.8pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 60% of students here test proficient in math and reading, well above the roughly 43% 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 17 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 →
Where Merrill Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Colorado | In Denver County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 59.8% | #24 of 241 | #5 of 30 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 53.7% | #31 of 244 | #5 of 30 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 66.5% | #30 of 246 | #6 of 30 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 611 | #80 of 278 | #5 of 30 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 17.1:1 | #157 of 227 | #23 of 28 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 59.3% | #48 of 227 | #11 of 28 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 39.1% | #157 of 246 | #26 of 30 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +7.8% | #34 of 55 | #8 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.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
611
+20 (+3%) vs 2020
-6% since 1990-91, when it was 652
Student : Teacher
17.1:1
was 16.9:1
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 | 611 | 35.7 | 17.1:1 | 39% (239) |
| 2023-24 | 604 | 34.5 | 17.5:1 | 36% (218) |
| 2022-23 | 623 | 31.1 | 20.1:1 | 37% (232) |
| 2020-21 | 591 | 35 | 16.9:1 | 38% (223) |
| 2017-18 | 567 | 30 | 18.9:1 | 48% (274) |
| 2015-16 | 551 | 39 | 14.1:1 | 59% (323) |
| 2010-11 | 545 | 38 | 14.3:1 | 80% (438) |
| 2000-01 | 702 | 43 | 16.3:1 | 57% (400) |
| 1990-91 | 652 | 45 | 14.5:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Merrill Middle School.
About Merrill Middle School
Federal records list Merrill Middle School as a middle school in DENVER, Colorado. It teaches 611 students in grades 6 through 8. Middle schools in Colorado have about 462 students on average; enrollment here is 32% higher.
Merrill Middle School is run by Denver Public Schools, whose 198 schools enroll 90,471 students.
More than half of enrollment at Merrill Middle School is White: 55%. The remaining shares are 32% Hispanic, 4% multiracial, 4% Black, and 4% Asian. Measured by the diversity index, the student body scores 59%.
Merrill Middle School lists 35.7 full-time-equivalent teachers; that is about 17.1 students per teacher. The gap from the 15.9:1 average for middle schools in Colorado is 1.2 students per teacher. About 39% of students at Merrill Middle School are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The average for public schools in Denver County is 63%.
The school's average proficiency rate across its state test results, 59.8%, is 16.8 points above the 43.0% the model predicts from its free or reduced-price lunch share. That result is in the top 10% of Colorado schools.
Denver County is the school's county. There, median household income comes to about $94,718, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 57%, and about 8% of people live in poverty. Denver County's 206 public schools enroll about 91,233 students and include Merrill Middle School.
Straight-line distance to the nearest public school, Creativity Challenge Community, is less than a tenth of a mile. Other public schools within five miles: at least 8. The average proficiency across nearby scored schools is 51.0%; Merrill Middle School's is 59.8%, ranking 4th of 8.
Locale data from NCES put Merrill Middle School inside a principal city with a population of 250,000 or more (City: Large).
Enrollment figures show a rise of 20 students from 2020-21 to 2024-25.
This community page is for conversations about open houses, carpools, and field trips. Teachers and staff are welcome to share updates too.
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
- Creativity Challenge Community0.0 mi · 306
- Cory Elementary School0.2 mi · 407
- Ellis Elementary School0.7 mi · 467
- University Park Elementary School1.0 mi · 413
- Stephen Knight Center for Early Education1.1 mi · 276
- South High School1.1 mi · 1,950
Frequently asked questions
About Merrill Middle SchoolHow many students attend Merrill Middle School?
Merrill Middle School enrolls approximately 611 students in grades 06-08.
What age range does Merrill Middle School serve?
Merrill Middle School serves students from grade 06 through grade 08.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Merrill Middle School?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Merrill Middle School is approximately 17.1:1 (36 FTE teachers).
How diverse is Merrill Middle School?
Merrill Middle School reports a student body of 55% White, 32% Hispanic, 4% Black, 4% Asian, 4% Two or more.
Who oversees Merrill Middle School?
Merrill 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.