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If you had an hour of school board time for Orchard Mesa Middle School, what would you bring up?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
560
Middle
DISTRICT 560 · STATE 462
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·MESA COUNTY VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 51·NCES 080435000619
Orchard Mesa Middle School
2736 UNAWEEP AVE #A, GRAND JUNCTION, CO 81503 · (970) 254-6320 · Mesa County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE13-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL560 STUDENTS
A-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 76% of Colorado public middle schools
- BTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- ABeats 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 middle schools
Student : Teacher
16.0:1
35 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 16.1:1 · STATE 15.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
59%
330 students
DISTRICT 54% · 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 | 181 | 32% |
| Grade 7 | 192 | 34% |
| Grade 8 | 187 | 33% |
Student demographics
45%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
45.1%
CO avg 44.9% . -1.4pp since 2023
Math
31.2%
CO avg 36.1% . -1.1pp since 2023
What this means: On the CMAS, Colorado's statewide test, about 45 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 31 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Colorado schools, those numbers are about 45 and 36. Reading and writing scores are down about 1 points since 2023, while math scores are down about 1 points.
CMAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 45.1% | 31.2% |
| 2023-24 | 46.5% | 32.3% |
% 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
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
39.9%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
31.0%
based on CO schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+8.9pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 40% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 31% typical for Colorado schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Colorado's top nor bottom 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 Orchard Mesa Middle School
Orchard Mesa Middle School's state test result (39.9% proficient) is higher than 5 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orchard Mesa Middle School this school | 560 | 58.9% | 39.9% |
| Sterling Middle School STERLING | 397 | 57.7% | 23.6% |
| Craig Middle School CRAIG | 419 | 52.3% | 26.4% |
| Pagosa Springs Middle School PAGOSA SPRINGS | 484 | 54.8% | 38.0% |
| West Middle School GRAND JUNCTION | 468 | 52.1% | 33.0% |
| Columbine Middle School MONTROSE | 491 | 50.7% | 30.3% |
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 Orchard Mesa Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Colorado | In Mesa County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 39.9% | #88 of 241 | #2 of 7 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 31.2% | #103 of 244 ▼ 11 | #3 of 7 ▼ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 45.1% | #106 of 246 ▼ 10 | #2 of 7 no change |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 560 | #97 of 278 | #4 of 8 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 16.0:1 | #118 of 227 | #3 of 7 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 45.3% | #154 of 227 | #5 of 7 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 58.9% | #90 of 246 | #4 of 7 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +13.4% | #24 of 55 | N/A |
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
560
+51 (+10%) vs 2020
-10% since 1990-91, when it was 619
Student : Teacher
16.0:1
was 16.4:1
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 | 560 | 35 | 16.0:1 | 59% (330) |
| 2023-24 | 581 | 33.5 | 17.3:1 | 59% (340) |
| 2022-23 | 465 | 28 | 16.6:1 | 57% (264) |
| 2020-21 | 509 | 31 | 16.4:1 | 65% (332) |
| 2017-18 | 494 | 32.8 | 15.1:1 | 60% (297) |
| 2015-16 | 502 | 32 | 15.7:1 | 60% (302) |
| 2010-11 | 537 | 34 | 15.8:1 | 58% (312) |
| 2000-01 | 588 | 33 | 17.8:1 | 42% (246) |
| 1990-91 | 619 | 39 | 15.9:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Orchard Mesa Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students up 13% (494 to 560); teachers up 7% (32.8 to 35).
About Orchard Mesa Middle School
Students in GRAND JUNCTION, Colorado, attend Orchard Mesa Middle School, a medium-sized middle school. The latest federal count shows 560 students in grades 6 through 8. Against the 462-student average for middle schools in Colorado, enrollment here is 21% higher.
District-wide, Mesa County Valley School District No. 51 has 45 schools and 20,344 students.
Roughly 69% of students at Orchard Mesa Middle School are White. Other groups include 25% Hispanic and 5% multiracial. By comparison, Mesa County residents are about 82% White. Pick two students at random and there is a 45% chance they belong to different racial or ethnic groups; that figure is the school's diversity index.
Its 35 full-time-equivalent teachers give the school a ratio of 16.0:1. That is close to the 15.9:1 average for middle schools in Colorado. Free or reduced-price lunch eligibility is 59%.
The allk12 Grade for Orchard Mesa Middle School is A-. Compared with Colorado public middle schools, the school scored higher than 76% on a mix of test scores, poverty-adjusted results, and recent trend.
Compared with Colorado schools that have similar shares of low-income students, Orchard Mesa Middle School's results are 8.9 points above predicted: 39.9% against 31.0%.
Census Bureau estimates for Mesa County show that the median household income is $73,658, roughly 32% of adults have a four-year degree or more, and the share of residents below the poverty line is 7%. There are 57 public schools in Mesa County, enrolling about 22,232 students in all.
Of nearby public schools, New Emerson School at Columbus is the closest, at about 0.6 miles. Orchard Mesa Middle School has at least 8 other public schools within five miles. Orchard Mesa Middle School comes in 1st of 4 nearby schools on average proficiency.
The National Center for Education Statistics classifies the school's location as City: Small, meaning it is inside a principal city with a population under 100,000.
Enrollment is up 10% from 2020-21, when Orchard Mesa Middle School had 509 students, to 2024-25, when it had 560.
The Orchard Mesa Middle School community page is open for posts about sports schedules, lunch menus, and spirit week. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.
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
- Bookcliff Middle SchoolMiddle · 525 students
- Independence AcademyElementary · 491 students
Nearby schools
- New Emerson School at Columbus0.6 mi · 138
- Dos Rios Elementary School0.8 mi · 293
- Grand Mesa Youth Services Center0.9 mi · 18
- R-5 High School1.5 mi · 207
- Grand River Academy1.6 mi · 461
- Lincoln Orchard Mesa Elementary School1.6 mi · 289
Frequently asked questions
About Orchard Mesa Middle SchoolHow large is Orchard Mesa Middle School?
Orchard Mesa Middle School enrolls approximately 560 students in grades 06-08.
Is Orchard Mesa Middle School an elementary, middle, or high school?
Orchard Mesa Middle School is a middle school covering grades 06-08.
How many teachers does Orchard Mesa Middle School have?
Orchard Mesa Middle School employs 35 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 16.0:1.
What is the student diversity at Orchard Mesa Middle School?
Student demographics at Orchard Mesa Middle School are roughly 69% White, 25% Hispanic, 0% Asian, 5% Two or more.
What district is Orchard Mesa Middle School in?
Orchard Mesa Middle School is part of Mesa County Valley School District No. 51.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.