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What clubs or activities at Prairie Middle School are worth joining?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
1,491
Middle
DISTRICT 928 · STATE 462
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·CHERRY CREEK SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 080291000201
Prairie Middle School
12600 EAST JEWELL AVENUE, AURORA, CO 80012 · (720) 747-3000 · Arapahoe County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL1,491 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
15.2:1
98 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 17.2:1 · STATE 15.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
68%
1,018 students
DISTRICT 38% · 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 | 511 | 34% |
| Grade 7 | 527 | 35% |
| Grade 8 | 453 | 30% |
Student demographics
69%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
19.9%
CO avg 44.9% . +0.2pp since 2023
Math
10.8%
CO avg 36.1% . +1.5pp since 2023
What this means: On the CMAS, Colorado's statewide test, about 20 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 11 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 up about 2 points.
CMAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 19.9% | 10.8% |
| 2023-24 | 19.7% | 9.3% |
% 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
14.3%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
25.3%
based on CO schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-11.0pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 14% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 25% 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 Prairie Middle School
Prairie Middle School's state test result (14.3% proficient) is higher than 2 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prairie Middle School this school | 1,491 | 68.3% | 14.3% |
| Columbia Middle School AURORA | 636 | 75.6% | 19.2% |
| Mrachek Middle School AURORA | 811 | 82.7% | 11.3% |
| Hamilton Middle School DENVER | 775 | 67.4% | 18.9% |
| Horizon Middle School AURORA | 714 | 59.4% | 21.6% |
| Aurora Hills Middle School AURORA | 821 | 85.9% | 8.7% |
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 Prairie Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Colorado | In Arapahoe County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 14.3% | #219 of 241 | #18 of 22 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 10.8% | #210 of 244 ▲ 2 | #19 of 23 ▲ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 19.9% | #216 of 246 ▲ 5 | #19 of 23 ▼ 1 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 1,491 | #1 of 278 | #1 of 24 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 15.2:1 | #87 of 227 | #5 of 21 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 69.5% | #8 of 227 | #4 of 21 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 68.3% | #62 of 246 | #7 of 23 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -14.7% | #94 of 169 | #15 of 18 |
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
1,491
-68 (-4%) vs 2020
+24% since 1990-91, when it was 1,199
Student : Teacher
15.2:1
was 19.0:1
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 | 1,491 | 98 | 15.2:1 | 68% (1,018) |
| 2023-24 | 1,362 | 89.1 | 15.3:1 | 76% (1,036) |
| 2022-23 | 1,383 | 91.9 | 15.1:1 | 71% (983) |
| 2020-21 | 1,559 | 82 | 19.0:1 | 71% (1,103) |
| 2017-18 | 1,747 | 100.1 | 17.4:1 | 74% (1,297) |
| 2015-16 | 1,727 | 99 | 17.4:1 | 75% (1,290) |
| 2010-11 | 1,572 | 102 | 15.4:1 | 68% (1,070) |
| 2000-01 | 1,490 | 94 | 15.8:1 | 28% (418) |
| 1990-91 | 1,199 | 72 | 16.6:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Prairie Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students down 15% (1,747 to 1,491); teachers down 2% (100.1 to 98).
About Prairie Middle School
Prairie Middle School is a high-enrollment middle-grades school for students in AURORA, Colorado. The school covers grades 6 through 8 and reported 1,491 students in 2024-25. Across middle schools in Colorado, the average enrollment is about 462.
The district, Cherry Creek School District, has 52,099 students enrolled across 70 schools.
About 47% of students at Prairie Middle School are Hispanic, the largest single group. Other reported shares: 20% Black, 17% White, 9% multiracial, and 6% Asian. Arapahoe County's residents are about 22% Hispanic, 26 points below the school's share. A diversity index of 69% means there is a 69% chance two randomly chosen students at Prairie Middle School are from different groups.
Prairie Middle School lists 98 full-time-equivalent teachers; that is about 15.2 students per teacher. The ratio is within a point of the 15.9:1 average for middle schools in Colorado. Free or reduced-price lunch covers 68% of the student body. The 50% average for public schools in Arapahoe County is 18 points lower.
The allk12 BeatsExpectations score for Prairie Middle School is -11.0 points: 14.3% actual, 25.3% predicted.
In the surrounding county, Arapahoe County, the median household earns about $101,087 a year, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 47%, and roughly 6% of residents are in poverty. Arapahoe County has 176 public schools with about 115,502 students, including Prairie Middle School.
A public school about 0.2 miles away, Overland High School, is the closest to Prairie Middle School. Prairie Middle School has at least 8 other public schools within five miles. Prairie Middle School comes in 5th of 8 nearby schools on average proficiency.
The school's locale code, City: Large, means it is inside a principal city with a population of 250,000 or more.
By 2024-25, enrollment had dropped to 1,491, from 1,559 in 2020-21. Its ratio of students to teachers was 19.0:1 in 2020-21, and 15.2:1 in 2024-25.
This page is set up for the Prairie Middle School community to discuss special education services, counseling, and support programs. 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
- Overland High School0.2 mi · 2,228
- Eastridge Community Elementary School0.8 mi · 716
- Village East Community Elementary School0.9 mi · 821
- Ponderosa Elementary School0.9 mi · 634
- Wildflower Montessori Public Schools of Colorado Aurora1.0 mi · 49
- Colorado Early Colleges Aurora1.0 mi · 567
Frequently asked questions
About Prairie Middle SchoolHow large is Prairie Middle School?
Prairie Middle School enrolls approximately 1,491 students in grades 06-08.
What age range does Prairie Middle School serve?
Prairie Middle School serves students from grade 06 through grade 08.
How many students per teacher at Prairie Middle School?
Approximately 15.2:1 students per teacher at Prairie Middle School.
What is the racial breakdown of students at Prairie Middle School?
At Prairie Middle School, the student body is approximately 17% White, 47% Hispanic, 20% Black, 6% Asian, 9% Two or more.
Who oversees Prairie Middle School?
Prairie Middle School is overseen by Cherry Creek School District in Arapahoe County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.