The top reported proficiency rate is 50% in Science. The lowest is 30% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Oak Grove Elementary School
Oak Grove Elementary School is a regular public school in Montrose, Colorado, serving kindergarten through fifth grade. As part of the Montrose County School District Re-1J, it operates on a campus in a city that functions as the county seat and a regional economic hub for western Colorado.
The school has a mid-sized elementary enrollment. Its student body is predominantly white, with a substantial Hispanic population representing close to a third of students. Just under half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a moderate-to-high level of economic diversity among the families it serves. The school does not appear to operate as a charter or magnet school. Civil rights data, including counts of students with disabilities and English learners, were not available in the source material.
On the 2024-25 state assessments, which the Colorado Measures of Academic Success, Oak Grove's overall proficiency across tested subjects places it well above the midpoint among the districts within Montrose County. This is a strong relative position, given that the comparison set includes all elementary schools in the district and those of neighboring districts. Specifically, in both math and English language arts, the share of students scoring at the proficient or advanced level was notably higher than the county median. Science results, tested only in fifth grade, showed that half of students reached the proficient threshold. While these figures indicate the school is a top performer in its local context, a parent may want to look into this further with the school if they are accustomed to schools with higher absolute rates of proficiency.
The district is in the midst of a significant pedagogical shift. A multi-year transition to a Mastery Learning system is underway, with full adoption targeted for the 2027-2028 school year. This approach replaces traditional letter grades with proficiency scales that define learning goals and progress indicators, meaning grades will reflect academic understanding rather than behavior or effort. The district has also partnered with an outside organization to overhaul its intervention systems, with a stated goal of reducing over-identification of students for special education and improving support for at-risk learners. These are structural changes that families with children in the district will experience directly.
The surrounding area influences what life is like for an Oak Grove family. Montrose has a historic downtown core and a mix of residential and commercial development, but its density is low and the city is auto-oriented. Housing in the area is priced below the Colorado state average, a notable contrast with many Front Range communities. The local economy has a strong outdoor recreation manufacturing base, though a major plant closure in 2021 was a job loss the city is still navigating. The city has invested in new trails, a recreation center, and river restoration projects, so the community is adding amenities even as its economic base shifts. The district operates four other elementary schools, two middle schools, and a high school in Montrose, so Oak Grove feeds into a district-wide system of schools rather than a small isolated one.
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