The reported proficiency rate for English language arts is 4%.
Original Research by School Decision on Denver Discovery School
Denver Discovery School is a closed public middle school that was part of Denver Public Schools. Its operational status is closed, meaning the school is no longer serving students. For that reason, many of the standard metrics that parents typically look at—enrollment size, student demographics, free or reduced-price lunch eligibility, special education and English learner counts, staffing, discipline, and course offerings—are absent from the available records. Those data were either never captured for this narrative or are no longer relevant to an active school.
Because it served only middle school grades, there is no graduation rate, nor would one apply. The school was a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and its Title I status is not reported.
The available state assessment data comes from the 2022-2023 school year, likely one of its final years of operation. On the Colorado Measures of Academic Success, the school's results were limited. In English language arts, the proficiency rate was very low. In both math and science, proficiency rates were suppressed, meaning the state did not report them—often because the number of students tested was too small to release a reliable figure. Participation rates were high enough that the small cohort size, rather than non-participation, is the more likely reason for the suppression. The average scale scores in all three subjects were well below the state average, though those figures are not shown here. Taken together, the testing picture is one of a school where academic achievement, at least as measured by these state exams, was a serious concern. A parent considering any historical record of this school would want to understand the context behind those numbers and what supports were in place.
The school was located in Denver, a major consolidated city-county and state capital that serves as the commercial and transportation hub of the Rocky Mountain West. Denver has a dense downtown core, a diverse economy spanning telecommunications, aerospace, health care, and tourism, and a large network of parks and cultural institutions. The broader Denver Public Schools district, of which this school was a part, has seen several recent changes that affect its current operations. In 2022, voters approved a mill levy override to boost teacher pay and mental health services. In 2023, the district shifted to a science-of-reading-based literacy curriculum for elementary grades. In 2024, voters passed the largest bond in district history for facility upgrades and new construction, and the district introduced a unified enrollment system for school choice. Because Denver Discovery School is closed, these developments apply to the district’s other schools rather than to this one.
For a parent today, the central fact is that Denver Discovery School is no longer open. Its academic record from its final years shows very low proficiency and suppressed results in core subjects. Anyone researching the site or the history of the building should confirm what, if anything, now occupies the address on Syracuse Street. The narrative of this school is largely one of absence: a closed middle school in a large urban district, with minimal data to draw on beyond a single testing year that points to significant academic struggles.
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