Schools - Denver,CO

I live in Highlands Ranch and have 2 kids at Fox Creek and one at Cresthill Middle School - all are Douglas County Schools and I love them!!!

S.,

Cherry Creek School District is very good as is Jefferson County. Jeffco is most of the suburbs by the foothills, Cherry Creek is more South of Denver.

Arvada, Westminster, Lakewood, Littleton, Highlands Ranch.. they are all in Jefferson County (some of Highlands Ranch is in Douglas County too I think). We live in SW Littleton right at the base of the foothills - beautiful, great community, wonderful schoools and only about 15 minutes from Downtown Denver if you want to go there. Quite a bit for sale in our area and it's a wonderful family community.

Good luck!
C.

I live on the west side of Highlands Ranch. There are great public schools and the mountains are very close. It's easy to drive 15 minutes for an easy hike. The commute to downtown is probably 30-40 minutes depending on the time you leave. There is light rail to Littleton-Downtown, though, so public transportation is an option.

Hi S.,
The Cherry Creek School system is excellent. Cities feed into CCS Centennial, Aurora, Cherry Hills, Greenwood Village. Gorgeous views of the mountains (Pikes peak to Longs Peak). Good luck with your move!
L.

Hi S.,
I hear Cherry Creek School district is a very good school district... they are close to Denver. Unfortunately, i do not have any first hand experience. I live in Highlands Ranch and my daughter just started Kindergarten. I was debating on whether to send her to the Christian school she went to preschool at but the cost was just more than I could take at this time. So, I researched and talked to other moms to see if the public school down the street would be a fit for her. So far, it has been great! SHe LOVES, LOVES, LOVES school and the reviews i have received from Douglas County School district have been outstanding. I just googled, rankings of schools in Colorado, phrases like that to try to find what schools would best suit us.
I volunteer quite a bit in her class and am at the school at least a couple of times a week and so far the experience with the teachers and staff have just been awesome! My daughter goes to Bear Canyon Elementary. And from what i have read it seems to have very high rankings, as one of the best schools in the state.
Good Luck! Hope you find what works best for your family.

Hello!

We have links to reports on Colorado public & private schools on our website -- http://www.stellerrealestate.com/ShowPage.aspx?wID=13197&...

There's no place to rate school districts as a whole, but if you see homes listed that you like, you can search the schools they feed to via this link and it will tell you how the school ranks, how it is trending and how it compares to nearby schools.

Generally speaking, if you're interested in being closer to the mountains, Littleton Public Schools and Jefferson County Public Schools are a safe bet and not too far of a commute to downtown.

Best of luck to you!

J. M. Steller
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Office of Conrad W. Steller II
Keller Williams Realty DTC LLC
www.StellerRealEstate.com

S.,

I loved living in Golden, it's near the mountains and has great access to 6th Avenue which takes you into Denver pretty quickly, it is expensive though. I live in Arvada now and really like it too. Generally, the further north and east you go, the less expensive houses are.

There are a couple other good sources to compare schools. First is the website that I help maintain, http://schoolchoiceforkids.org. The site explains the open enrollment process (you can "open enroll" into a school that isn't in your neighborhood as long as there is space available), and has a step-by-step process of how to look for a school. You can search for schools in the area you are looking at, just by zip code if you like since you don't have a particular address yet. You can also sort your search by certain grade levels and special programs like Montessori, Core Knowledge, math/science focus, etc.

The other site is from the Colorado Department of Education and provides school performance results, both in terms of how well students performed as well as how much growth students in the school are making toward state standards: https://cdeapps.cde.state.co.us/growth_model_public/ You can search on a map or by certain school districts. If you choose Arvada or Golden, you'll want to look at Jefferson County. If you want Highlands Ranch, you'll want to look at Douglas County School District. Cherry Creek is its own school district. You might also check out Littleton Public Schools.

I hope that helps!

M.

We recently moved to the Denver area and have found the area up I70 from Golden to be a great place to live. The elementary school is great and the area is beautiful. We also love going into Golden and Evergreen both as we are right between them.
Good luck with your move and enjoy Denver!

S., beware of Cherry Creek School District!!!! Sure, they have SOME great schools, but if you look, there are plenty of schools within the district that are AWFUL! Just like any district, there are good schools, and bad. I live in the district, but choice my children into a Denver Public School. Their school is one of the best in the state in fact. If you do your research, you can find a great school in ANY district. Go to greatschools.net. You can find tons of helpful hints and comments from parents from every school you look into. You can type in a zipcode, town, or what grade your child is in and it will give you a list of schools to look at. It posts both CSAP scores, parent rating and percentage ratings of every school listed.

I'm a realtor in the Arvada area and can tell you about most of the schools near us: Sierra, Vanderhoof, Westwoods, Foster, Mikeilejohn, Excel, Lincoln Academy, Jefferson Academy, etc.

Arvada is a wonderful, close knit community with lots of different styles and ages of houses. We have an active Festivals commission, close proximity to open space, mountains, biking/running trails and a huge Arts Center.

The best place to look for info on schools is: http://www.denverpost.com/csap for data on schools. Then talking to each school individually to see how it compares to your child's learning style.

I have taught in the Douglas County School District for 11 years. I believe it is the best around. Great areas to live would be Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree or Castle Rock. The community is very friendly, lots of kids, parks, trails, fun kids and adult places, etc. That's why we live here!

Hello! Not sure of what ages your children are but Foothills Elementary is a great school with a fabulous staff. It is located in Lakewood (Green Mountain area). It is basically on the tip of Lakewood almost Golden. The mountains are within site but the city is only 20 minutes away. I have also heard great things about Dunstan Middle School and Green Mountain Highschool which are in the area. Good luck!!