The top reported proficiency rate is 12% in English language arts. The lowest is 3% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Emory Elementary School
Emory Elementary School is closed. That single fact governs every other observation a family might try to make about the school. The school was a regular public elementary in Lakewood, part of the Jefferson County School District R-1, and its life cycle status is listed as closed. No enrollment data, no student demographics, no share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price meals, and no information about special education or English learner populations are available because the school is no longer operating. A parent searching for an active elementary school in this part of Lakewood would not find one at this address.
State testing results from the 2022-23 school year are present in the record, but they are not current performance; they are a snapshot of a school that soon after would shut down. On the Colorado Measures of Academic Success assessments, the proficiency rates across all three tested subjects were very low. In math, fewer than one in ten students scored at the proficient or advanced level. In English language arts, roughly one in nine students met that bar. On the fifth-grade science assessment, the rate was similarly low. The participation rate on the tests was below three-quarters, which means a meaningful portion of students did not take the state assessments; state accountability systems typically flag participation below a threshold as a concern, so a parent investigating this school at the time would have wanted to understand why that was the case. There is no multi-year trend data to show whether these results represented a change or a pattern.
The building itself was located on South Teller Street in Lakewood, a large suburban city immediately west of Denver. Lakewood is a sprawling, mostly autocentric community with older mid-century subdivisions, major highways, and large institutional campuses such as the Denver Federal Center. Walkable street life is concentrated almost entirely in the Belmar mixed-use district, a redevelopment of the former Villa Italia mall site. Schools in Lakewood are spread across the city and assigned by neighborhood within Jefferson County R-1.
The district context is relevant because it helps a family understand what happened here. Jefferson County R-1 is a large district that in 2023 proposed closing 16 schools due to declining enrollment and budget deficits; the plan was reversed after community pushback, and the district instead formed a committee to study enrollment trends and consolidation options. Emory Elementary appears to have been among the schools affected by these broader pressures. In November 2024, voters approved a bond measure for capital improvements, the first since a bond in the previous decade, and also recalled three school board members in an election driven by concerns about transparency and consolidation decisions. The district also adopted a new elementary literacy curriculum aligned with the science of reading beginning in the 2023-24 school year.
Because Emory Elementary School is closed, there is no active academic environment, no peer group, no student support structure, and no housing market link to describe for a family seeking enrollment. The record provides a closed school’s testing data and a district story of enrollment decline and consolidation. A parent looking at this school should treat it as a historical entry, not an active option, and turn to the district for information about which elementary school now serves this attendance area and what the transition has meant for students and families.
See more original research from School Decision →