The top reported proficiency rate is 30% in English language arts. The lowest is 18% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Sky Ranch Academy
Sky Ranch Academy is a charter school serving kindergarten through seventh grade, located in Aurora and operating under Bennett School District 29J. The school opened in fall 2023 and is the district’s first charter school, giving families a public school choice that did not previously exist within the district. It plans to expand by one grade each year, so a family enrolling a younger child today would see the school grow alongside them through the middle school years.
The student body is diverse. The largest groups by race and ethnicity are white students and Hispanic students, each making up about a third of enrollment, followed by Black students at about a fifth, and a smaller share of students who identify with two or more races. Asian and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students are present in very small numbers. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Enrollment is concentrated in the lower grades, with the largest single grade being kindergarten and cohorts tapering off through seventh grade, which is consistent with a school that opened recently and has not yet filled its upper grades.
State testing results are available for the 2024-25 school year. On the Colorado Measures of Academic Success, the school’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades sits above the midpoint when compared with other districts within Arapahoe County. That said, the actual proficiency rates show that a minority of students met the state’s proficiency bar in any subject. In English language arts, about a third of students scored proficient. In math, fewer than one in five did. In science, proficiency rates were around a fifth in fifth grade and closer to a quarter in eighth grade, though the eighth-grade cohort is quite small. A parent considering this school should look into the academic support structures in place, particularly in math, and ask the school how it is addressing the gap between current performance and grade-level expectations.
Because the school serves only through seventh grade, there is no high school graduation rate to report. The school is new, and the data available so far represents a single year of testing, so there are no trends to assess yet. The district, Bennett 29J, has in recent years invested in literacy curriculum adoption and hired instructional coaches focused on primary math and reading, which may influence Sky Ranch Academy’s approach, but the school’s own academic programming is not detailed in the data.
Aurora itself is a large, sprawling suburban city, the third-largest in Colorado, covering a vast area across three counties. Its built environment is car-dependent, with light rail lines serving some corridors. Major employers include Buckley Space Force Base and the Anschutz Medical Campus. The city saw fast growth in previous decades and continues to expand, particularly in the corridor near Denver International Airport. Housing in the school’s zip code is priced around the state average, with a modest year-over-year dip in both home values and rents.
For a family trying to understand whether Sky Ranch Academy fits, the key facts are these. It is a new charter school that will continue to grow grade by grade. It serves a diverse student population, with a substantial share of students from lower-income households. Academic performance in its first tested year is uneven, with literacy stronger than math. A family should probe for how the school plans to raise proficiency rates, what interventions and enrichment are in place, and how the school will adapt as it adds grades and grows older. There is no track record to judge yet, only a starting point.
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