The top reported proficiency rate is 50% in English language arts. The lowest is 34% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Basalt Elementary School
Basalt Elementary School serves students from pre-kindergarten through fourth grade as a regular public school within the Roaring Fork School District No. Re-1. It sits in the town of Basalt, a mid-valley commercial hub along Highway 82 between Glenwood Springs and Aspen. Basalt itself has a historic downtown core near the confluence of the Roaring Fork and Fryingpan Rivers and a newer mixed-use development in the Willits neighborhood. The town is described as somewhat walkable, with a Walk Score that puts some errands within reach on foot, and it has a bike-share program and public bus transit connecting it to Aspen, Snowmass, Carbondale, and Glenwood Springs. Many residents commute to Aspen or Snowmass for work in hospitality, the ski industry, and service sectors, while local employers include the town government, the school district, and area restaurants and retail. The Roaring Fork and Fryingpan Rivers, both Gold Medal trout fisheries, are central natural features, and Ruedi Reservoir is a nearby regional destination for boating.
The school’s enrollment is sizable for an elementary school serving only through fourth grade, with a student body that is majority Hispanic and roughly one-third White. About half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the school operates a dual language program, part of the district’s broader investment in bilingual education that includes dual language schools and classes across multiple sites. The district recently launched a multi-year strategic plan built from performance data and stakeholder input, establishing five priorities that will guide curriculum and operations through the end of the decade, so this school is part of a system undergoing a deliberate shift in its approach to teaching and learning.
On state assessments, a little under half of students scored as proficient or above in English language arts, while about one-third did so in math. These results come from the Colorado Measures of Academic Success, which tests students in grades three and up, so the data here reflects only third and fourth graders. The participation rate on both tests was very high. The school had too few district peers in Eagle County to produce a meaningful comparison against other local districts, so there is no external benchmark placing its proficiency in a county-wide context. A family moving to the area would want to look into how these performance levels compare with other schools serving similar grade bands in the wider region, and what the school’s own trajectory looks like over multiple years, as only a single year of data is available here.
The housing market in the area is expensive. Home values in Basalt’s zip code are well above the state median, and the combination of purchase prices and rents relative to national income benchmarks suggests that affordability is a significant consideration for families looking to live in the town. The school itself is located in proximity to residential neighborhoods, not on a separated campus, and is part of a district that spans multiple communities with distinct characters. For a parent weighing this school, the core picture is an elementary school with a dual language program, a diverse student body, and academic results that show room for growth, situated in a high-cost mountain town that serves as a commercial and transit hub for the mid-Roaring Fork Valley.
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