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Best kept secret at Polton Community Elementary School?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
466
Elementary
DISTRICT 478 · STATE 379
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·CHERRY CREEK SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 080291000199
Polton Community Elementary School
2985 SOUTH OAKLAND STREET, AURORA, CO 80014 · (720) 747-2600 · Arapahoe County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL466 STUDENTS
D
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 13% of Colorado public elementary schools
- CTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- DBeats 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
13.8:1
34 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 15.3:1 · STATE 16.6:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
56%
259 students
DISTRICT 38% · 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 | 87 | 19% |
| Kindergarten | 53 | 11% |
| Grade 1 | 59 | 13% |
| Grade 2 | 80 | 17% |
| Grade 3 | 60 | 13% |
| Grade 4 | 57 | 12% |
| Grade 5 | 70 | 15% |
This year's kindergarten class (53) is 24% smaller than its 5th grade class (70).
Student demographics
76%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 71% · 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
24.7%
CO avg 44.9% . -3.5pp since 2023
Math
23.5%
CO avg 36.1% . -2.8pp since 2023
What this means: On the CMAS, Colorado's statewide test, about 25 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 24 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 4 points since 2023, while math scores are down about 3 points.
CMAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 24.7% | 23.5% |
| 2023-24 | 28.2% | 26.3% |
% 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
24.8%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
33.0%
based on CO schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-8.3pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 25% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 33% 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 Polton Community Elementary School
Polton Community Elementary School's state test result (24.8% proficient) is higher than 2 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polton Community Elementary School this school | 466 | 55.6% | 24.8% |
| Highline Academy Southeast DENVER | 591 | 53.3% | 46.8% |
| Sunrise Elementary School AURORA | 497 | 61.2% | 17.4% |
| Arrowhead Elementary School AURORA | 499 | 54.1% | 22.4% |
| Sky Ranch Academy AURORA | 495 | 42.4% | 25.1% |
| Independence Elementary School AURORA | 439 | 64.7% | 25.9% |
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 Polton Community Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Colorado | In Arapahoe County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 24.8% | #684 of 931 | #66 of 96 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 23.5% | #646 of 940 ▼ 64 | #63 of 96 ▼ 11 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 24.7% | #746 of 946 ▼ 65 | #71 of 96 ▼ 9 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 466 | #295 of 1,056 | #59 of 104 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 13.8:1 | #201 of 896 | #21 of 97 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 75.8% | #4 of 896 | #3 of 97 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 55.6% | #416 of 983 | #48 of 101 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -13.1% | #418 of 664 | #41 of 70 |
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
466
-35 (-7%) vs 2020
+7% since 1990-91, when it was 436
Student : Teacher
13.8:1
was 15.2:1
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 | 466 | 33.8 | 13.8:1 | 56% (259) |
| 2023-24 | 451 | 32.1 | 14.1:1 | 65% (291) |
| 2022-23 | 477 | 32 | 14.9:1 | 55% (261) |
| 2020-21 | 501 | 33 | 15.2:1 | 54% (270) |
| 2017-18 | 536 | 34.7 | 15.5:1 | 51% (271) |
| 2015-16 | 537 | 33 | 16.3:1 | 44% (234) |
| 2010-11 | 485 | 28 | 17.3:1 | 40% (193) |
| 2000-01 | 404 | 24 | 16.8:1 | 14% (56) |
| 1990-91 | 436 | 23 | 19.0:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Polton Community Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 13% (536 to 466); teachers down 3% (34.7 to 33.8).
About Polton Community Elementary School
Polton Community Elementary School, a mid-sized elementary school, is located in AURORA, Colorado. It has an enrollment of 466 students in pre-K through 5. On average, elementary schools in Colorado enroll around 379, and this school is 23% bigger than that mark.
Polton Community Elementary School reports to Cherry Creek School District, which has 70 schools and 52,099 students.
No group is above 50% at Polton Community Elementary School; the largest is White, at 31%. The rest of enrollment is 26% Hispanic, 23% Black, 14% multiracial, and 4% Asian. Among all residents of Arapahoe County, the White share is about 59%. Measured by the diversity index, the student body scores 76%.
The school lists 33.8 full-time-equivalent teachers and a student-to-teacher ratio of 13.8:1. The average for elementary schools in Colorado is 16.6:1, so this school has fewer students per teacher. A total of 259 students, or 56%, are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.
Polton Community Elementary School earns a D on the allk12 Grade, which blends test scores, results against poverty-based expectations, and the three-year trend. It scored higher than 13% of Colorado public elementary schools.
Polton Community Elementary School sits between the top and bottom 10% of Colorado schools on BeatsExpectations, with an actual average proficiency rate across its state test results of 24.8% and a predicted 33.0%.
Five-year Census Bureau estimates for Arapahoe County show that the median household earns about $101,087 a year, about 47% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and roughly 6% of residents are in poverty. Arapahoe County has 176 public schools with about 115,502 students, including Polton Community Elementary School.
About 0.6 miles separate Polton Community Elementary School from the closest public school, Eastridge Community Elementary School. The five-mile area around Polton Community Elementary School holds at least 8 other public schools. Polton Community Elementary School ranks 1st of 9 among nearby schools on average proficiency, with 24.8% against a local average of 16.5%.
The NCES locale for Polton Community Elementary School is City: Large, which covers schools inside a principal city with a population of 250,000 or more.
By 2024-25, enrollment had dropped to 466, from 501 in 2020-21. By 2024-25, the school had 13.8 students per teacher, compared with 15.2 in 2020-21.
On allk12, people connected to Polton Community Elementary School can post about pickup and drop-off, after-school programs, and teacher feedback. Current and former families are welcome to add their experience.
Arapahoe County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
659,844
Census ACS
Median income
$101,087
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
47%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
6%
Below federal line
Schools in county
176
115,502 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Cherry Creek School District
- Cherry Creek High SchoolHigh · 3,852 students
- Cherokee Trail High SchoolHigh · 3,089 students
- Eaglecrest High SchoolHigh · 2,851 students
- Grandview High SchoolHigh · 2,684 students
- Smoky Hill High SchoolHigh · 2,297 students
- Overland High SchoolHigh · 2,228 students
Other schools in AURORA
- Cherokee Trail High SchoolHigh · 3,089 students
- Grandview High SchoolHigh · 2,684 students
- Aurora Central CampusCombined · 2,468 students
- Smoky Hill High SchoolHigh · 2,297 students
- Overland High SchoolHigh · 2,228 students
- Rangeview High SchoolHigh · 2,078 students
Nearby schools
- Eastridge Community Elementary School0.6 mi · 716
- Joe Shoemaker School0.9 mi · 543
- Overland High School1.2 mi · 2,228
- Prairie Middle School1.4 mi · 1,491
- Ponderosa Elementary School1.4 mi · 634
- Village East Community Elementary School1.9 mi · 821
Frequently asked questions
About Polton Community Elementary SchoolHow large is Polton Community Elementary School?
Polton Community Elementary School enrolls approximately 466 students in grades PK-05.
What age range does Polton Community Elementary School serve?
Polton Community Elementary School serves students from grade PK through grade 05.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Polton Community Elementary School?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Polton Community Elementary School is approximately 13.8:1 (34 FTE teachers).
What is the student diversity at Polton Community Elementary School?
Student demographics at Polton Community Elementary School are roughly 31% White, 26% Hispanic, 23% Black, 4% Asian, 14% Two or more.
What district is Polton Community Elementary School in?
Polton Community Elementary School is part of Cherry Creek School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.