The top reported proficiency rate is 92% in English language arts. The lowest is 82% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Hulstrom K-8
Hulstrom K-8 sits within the Adams 12 Five Star School district, in Northglenn, a master-planned suburban community that was built as a set of neighborhoods with accessible schools and shopping centers rather than a traditional downtown. The city has seen a modest population increase in recent years and is an established, built-out suburb with a fairly dense character. Its extensive Greenway Trail System and a Regional Transportation District rail station that connects directly to downtown Denver give residents non-vehicular options alongside the car commuting that much of the metro area relies on. The housing market in the zip code has seen home values decrease slightly year over year, and rents have edged down as well, a pattern that moves against the national trend.
The school serves kindergarten through eighth grade as a regular public school, drawing a student body that is predominantly white, with substantial Asian and Hispanic populations and smaller shares of students who are Black or multiracial. A comparatively low share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which signals a more economically stable peer environment than many schools in the area.
Academically, Hulstrom’s performance on the Colorado Measures of Academic Success stands well above what is typical for Adams County. The school’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades places it in the top quartile relative to other districts in the county. In math, a very strong share of students scored at the proficient or advanced level. English language arts results were even stronger, with an elevated proficiency rate. In science, tested in fifth grade, the proficiency rate was also high, and by eighth grade it was higher still. Participation rates across all tests were well above the threshold, lending confidence to the results. Multi-year academic trends data was not available, so it is not possible to say whether this level of performance is newly achieved or a sustained pattern, but the single-year snapshot places the school in a category that few schools in the county reach.
Because the school does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report. Course access data, staffing ratios, and chronic absenteeism rates were also absent from the profile, so those dimensions of school quality cannot be assessed here. A parent who wants a fuller picture of the middle school years is advised to ask the school for information about elective offerings, advisory structures, and how the transition to high school is handled.
No recent district-level changes were identified in public sources, so it appears that Adams 12 Five Star Schools has been operating without major disruptions or structural shifts that would alter a family’s experience at Hulstrom.
For a family looking at Northglenn, the school delivers academic results that are unusually strong for the county. The peer group is relatively affluent and the school is large enough to sustain differentiated instruction across grades. The suburban setting offers parks, trails, and transit access to Denver, and the housing market, while not cheap, is more accessible than some parts of the metro. A parent who prioritizes high academic performance in a low-poverty setting through the middle school years will find a strong match here. Parents who want to know about special education staffing, English learner support, or course access in the upper grades will need to gather that information directly, as those data were not available in the public record.
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