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What's the biggest difference between Shadow Ridge Middle School and what you expected?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
632
Middle
DISTRICT 802 · STATE 462
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·ADAMS 12 FIVE STAR SCHOOLS·NCES 080690001186
Shadow Ridge Middle School
12551 HOLLY STREET, THORNTON, CO 80602 · (720) 972-5040 · Adams County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL632 STUDENTS
F
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 1% of Colorado public middle schools
- DTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- FBeats 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
16.3:1
39 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 17.4:1 · STATE 15.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
57%
363 students
DISTRICT 57% · 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 | 212 | 34% |
| Grade 7 | 199 | 31% |
| Grade 8 | 221 | 35% |
Student demographics
57%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 63% · 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
19.4%
CO avg 44.9% . +0.7pp since 2023
Math
10.4%
CO avg 36.1% . -1.3pp since 2023
What this means: On the CMAS, Colorado's statewide test, about 19 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 10 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 1 points.
CMAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 19.4% | 10.4% |
| 2023-24 | 18.7% | 11.7% |
% 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
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of CO schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
16.4%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
31.9%
based on CO schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-15.5pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 16% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 32% typical for Colorado schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
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 Shadow Ridge Middle School
Shadow Ridge Middle School's state test result (16.4% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shadow Ridge Middle School this school | 632 | 57.4% | 16.4% |
| Prairie View Middle School HENDERSON | 679 | 58.9% | 22.5% |
| Trail Ridge Middle School LONGMONT | 435 | 59.8% | 29.8% |
| Creighton Middle School LAKEWOOD | 741 | 54.3% | 32.1% |
| North Arvada Middle School ARVADA | 464 | 66.8% | 23.7% |
| Carmody Middle School LAKEWOOD | 550 | 51.8% | 31.7% |
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 Shadow Ridge Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Colorado | In Adams County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 16.4% | #212 of 241 | #12 of 20 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 10.4% | #215 of 244 ▼ 14 | #13 of 20 ▼ 4 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 19.4% | #219 of 246 ▲ 3 | #13 of 20 ▲ 1 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 632 | #75 of 278 | #9 of 20 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 16.3:1 | #127 of 227 | #8 of 19 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 56.6% | #68 of 227 | #7 of 19 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 57.4% | #97 of 246 | #14 of 20 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -33.4% | #30 of 169 | #4 of 15 |
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
632
-183 (-22%) vs 2020
-29% since 1990-91, when it was 891
Student : Teacher
16.3:1
was 18.5:1
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 | 632 | 38.8 | 16.3:1 | 57% (363) |
| 2023-24 | 641 | 37.8 | 17.0:1 | 61% (393) |
| 2022-23 | 672 | 38.8 | 17.3:1 | 55% (369) |
| 2020-21 | 815 | 44 | 18.5:1 | 46% (374) |
| 2017-18 | 949 | 47 | 20.2:1 | 45% (430) |
| 2015-16 | 1,003 | 50 | 20.1:1 | 43% (431) |
| 2010-11 | 1,050 | 52 | 20.2:1 | 36% (374) |
| 2000-01 | 844 | 45 | 18.8:1 | 20% (167) |
| 1990-91 | 891 | 53 | 16.8:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Shadow Ridge Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students down 33% (949 to 632); teachers down 18% (47 to 38.8).
About Shadow Ridge Middle School
The public middle-grades school Shadow Ridge Middle School is located in THORNTON, Colorado. It serves 632 students in grades 6 through 8. For comparison, middle schools in Colorado average about 462 students.
Shadow Ridge Middle School is one of 54 schools in Adams 12 Five Star Schools, which enrolls 34,466 students in total.
Shadow Ridge Middle School's enrollment is 56% Hispanic. The next largest groups are 34% White, 4% multiracial, and 3% Asian. In Adams County overall, about 43% of residents are Hispanic. Shadow Ridge Middle School has a diversity index of 57%, compared with 70% for all US public school students.
Its 38.8 full-time-equivalent teachers give the school a ratio of 16.3:1. Middle schools in Colorado have a similar average ratio of 15.9:1. Free or reduced-price lunch eligibility is 57%.
Shadow Ridge Middle School is graded F by allk12, scoring above 1% of Colorado public middle schools once test results, poverty-adjusted performance, and the recent trend are combined.
Shadow Ridge Middle School is 15.5 points below expectations on state tests, given its student poverty level, placing it in the bottom 10% in Colorado.
Federal survey data for Adams County show that median household income is about $94,571, 29% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 7% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Shadow Ridge Middle School is among the 171 public schools in Adams County.
The closest public school to Shadow Ridge Middle School is Skyview Elementary School, about 0.3 miles away. Other public schools within five miles number at least 8. The school's 16.4% average proficiency ranks 8th among 8 nearby schools.
NCES assigns Shadow Ridge Middle School the locale Suburb: Large, meaning in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
The number of students dropped from 815 to 632 over 4 years. By 2024-25, the school had 16.3 students per teacher, compared with 18.5 in 2020-21.
Families, students, and staff can use this page to discuss sports schedules, lunch menus, and spirit week at Shadow Ridge Middle School. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.
Adams County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
530,225
Census ACS
Median income
$94,571
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
29%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
7%
Below federal line
Schools in county
171
87,938 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Adams 12 Five Star Schools
- Legacy High SchoolHigh · 2,052 students
- Horizon High SchoolHigh · 1,966 students
- Northglenn High SchoolHigh · 1,844 students
- Mountain Range High SchoolHigh · 1,788 students
- Stargate Charter SchoolCombined · 1,572 students
- Prospect Ridge AcademyCombined · 1,478 students
Other schools in THORNTON
- Riverdale Ridge High SchoolHigh · 1,784 students
- Stargate Charter SchoolCombined · 1,572 students
- Thornton High SchoolHigh · 1,439 students
- Rocky Top Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,052 students
- Rodger Quist Middle SchoolMiddle · 855 students
- York InternationalCombined · 776 students
Other Shadow Ridge Middle schools
One other US public school is named Shadow Ridge Middle. Shadow Ridge Middle School is the largest of the 2.
- Shadow Ridge Middle SchoolFLOWER MOUND, TX · 623 students
Nearby schools
- Skyview Elementary School0.3 mi · 326
- Glacier Peak Elementary School0.6 mi · 412
- Stellar Elementary School1.0 mi · 418
- West Ridge Elementary1.1 mi · 690
- Eagleview Elementary School1.1 mi · 451
- Cherry Drive Elementary School1.4 mi · 325
Frequently asked questions
About Shadow Ridge Middle SchoolHow large is Shadow Ridge Middle School?
Shadow Ridge Middle School enrolls approximately 632 students in grades 06-08.
Is Shadow Ridge Middle School an elementary, middle, or high school?
Shadow Ridge Middle School is a middle school covering grades 06-08.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Shadow Ridge Middle School?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Shadow Ridge Middle School is approximately 16.3:1 (39 FTE teachers).
What is the racial breakdown of students at Shadow Ridge Middle School?
At Shadow Ridge Middle School, the student body is approximately 34% White, 56% Hispanic, 2% Black, 3% Asian, 4% Two or more.
Is Shadow Ridge Middle School public or private?
Shadow Ridge Middle School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Adams 12 Five Star Schools.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.