The reported proficiency rate for English language arts is 25%.
Original Research by School Decision on Colorado Virtual Academy
Colorado Virtual Academy is a full-time online public elementary school serving kindergarten through sixth grade, administered by Byers School District 32J but based in Lakewood. It is not a brick-and-mortar neighborhood school. Families who enroll here commit to a fully remote learning model, with students completing their coursework from home under the supervision of a parent or guardian and with instruction from licensed teachers delivered virtually. For a K-6 setting, this is a fundamentally different daily experience from attending a physical school building.
The school’s enrollment of about that size for its grade band draws students from across Colorado, not from a single attendance zone. The student body is diverse. White students make up a substantial majority, while Hispanic students form a large minority, Black students are a smaller but notable share, and Asian, American Indian, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students each make up a thin sliver of the population. Data on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, who receive special education services, or who are English learners was not reported, so a full picture of economic and academic support needs is not available from this data.
State testing results for the 2024-25 school year are thin and difficult to interpret with confidence. In English language arts, the proficiency rate for all students was well below the state average for tested grades three through eight, a soft spot a family would want to ask the school about. In math, proficiency data was suppressed for a very small tested group, and the participation rate across tested subjects was extremely low, with only a tiny fraction of enrolled students taking the state assessments. The school’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades was above the midpoint when compared to other districts in Arapahoe County, but that comparison is based on a very low testing pool. The science results were also suppressed, with no students tested at all in fifth grade, the grade the state tests. For a family evaluating academic performance, the low test participation makes the available results an unreliable gauge of how the school’s full student body is learning.
No graduation rate data exists here, because the school does not serve high school grades. Information on discipline rates, staffing ratios, course access, and chronic absenteeism was not available. A parent may want to ask the school directly about how it monitors attendance and engagement in a fully virtual environment, since the data does not clarify those points.
The parent district, Byers School District 32J, is structured as an authorizer and host for multiple full-time online schools serving various grade levels across the state. That means the district operates a network of virtual programs beyond its physical campuses in the town of Byers, and Colorado Virtual Academy is one of those offerings. The district brief confirms this as a lasting structural feature rather than a short-term experiment, so families can expect the online school to remain an option.
Lakewood, where the school’s administrative office is located, is a large suburban city immediately west of Denver. It combines established mid-century residential neighborhoods, commercial corridors along major highways, and large institutional campuses including the Denver Federal Center. The city’s closest thing to a downtown is Belmar, a master-planned mixed-use district built on the site of a former shopping mall. Housing values in the ZIP code are above the state median, and rents are similarly elevated, reflecting Lakewood’s position in the Denver metro area housing market. For families who live in Lakewood and enroll in Colorado Virtual Academy, the school’s remote model means there is no daily commute to a campus; the physical address is an administrative hub. For families outside Lakewood, the school is accessible anywhere with an internet connection, which is the whole point.
This school fits a family that wants a fully online elementary education, either because a traditional building-based school is not a good fit, because the family moves frequently, or because the family values learning at home under a structured online program. The low test participation and the missing student-support data are real unknowns that a prospective family should probe directly with the school before enrolling.
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