Kemper Elementary School was officially ranked number 151 out of 778 elementary schools in Colorado for its students’ reading and math proficiency, as well as their rank in metrics such as high school preparedness and scores on state testing, putting it in the top 40% of elementary schools in the state.
On Nov. 14, Kemper Elementary Principal Kathleen Nelson received an email from U.S. News & World Report announcing Kemper’s rank in their 2024 Best Elementary Schools report.
“It’s so awesome,” Nelson told The Journal. “It was really exciting and just validates all the hard work that my staff and students are doing.”
In the email, U.S. News & World Report Vice President Mark White congratulated Kemper for its hard work.d in the data that was shown in their rating.
Nelson credited AJ Crabill’s training with the district as part of the improvement, saying he helped bring outcomes front and center.
“His famous saying is, ‘Student outcomes don’t change until adult behavior changes,’ and that’s what we do on our ends with our systems and how we show up every day to do what’s best for our kids, and really just have that student-centered decision making at the forefront,” Nelson said.
In the report, Kemper was labeled as an elementary school in a “remote town setting” with 333 students K-5th grade, 20 full-time teachers and one full-time counselor. According to the report, 96% of Kemper’s teachers are certified and there is a 16:1 student to teacher ratio.
Minority enrollment is 53% of students. White students make up 47% of the population, with 23% of students being identified as American Indian/Alaskan and 20% Hispanic or Latino.
About 49% of students are female and 51% male, and 60% of Kemper’s students are “economically disadvantaged.”
Sschools are ranked based on state-required tests, reading and math proficiency, graduation, preparation for high school and more.
The report showed that 45% of students scored at or above proficiency in math and 47% are at or above proficiency in reading.
In the state rankings, Kemper was number 300 in reading, 162 in math in the state, with reading and math performance “well above expectations.”
The Montezuma-Cortez district average is 40% in reading and 30% in math.
“Compared with the district, the school did better in math and better in reading, according to this metric. In Montezuma-Cortez School District No. Re-1, 30% of students tested at or above the proficient level for reading, and 19% tested at or above that level for math,” the report shared. “Kemper Elementary School did better in math and better in reading in this metric compared with students across the state. In Colorado, 41% of students tested at or above the proficient level for reading, and 27% tested at or above that level for math.”
Continuing forward, Nelson said reaching standards in the elementary school is at the forefront.
“We have to prepare our kids for all the standards to prepare them for the next grade level,” Nelson said. “Just focusing on rigorous instruction and making sure they’re tied to standards. Knowing where the kids are at with data is so important, and our teachers do a great job of looking at data and responding to the data because we have to know where the kids are.”
