Polaris Expeditionary Learning School
FORT COLLINS · CO · Poudre School District R-1 · Public · K-12 combined
📄 Shareable scorecard →Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
Ridgeview Classical Schools → Centennial High School → Poudre Community Academy → Harold Ferguson High School → Compass Community Collaborative School → Ascent Classical Academy of Northern Colorado → Loveland Classical School → Liberty Common Charter School →📋 At a glance
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🎓 AP rigor: Bottom 25% of US high schools
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 33% by test-taker volume
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 95% (75th percentile nationally)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Polaris Expeditionary Learning School compares for families
What families should know about Polaris Expeditionary Learning School.
- ▸ LocallyCO students outperform the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (+4 points).
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Ridgeview Classical Schools, Centennial High School, Poudre Community Academy and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
For Parents
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Get an email when Polaris Expeditionary Learning School's numbers change — new admissions results, enrollment shifts, test scores. A few updates a year, no spam.
SAT / ACT participation
CRDC federal data · 2020-21Bottom 33% by test-taker volume
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). Volume — not score — is what's reported here. A higher count means more students at this school are entering the college admissions pipeline. Note: 2020-21 was COVID-disrupted; some districts (especially those that stayed remote longer) report unusually low or zero takers.
🎓 4-year graduation rate · federal EDFacts
What % of students graduate on time?
75th percentile nationally
Source: federal EDFacts ACGR (Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate), 2019 vintage via Urban Institute. EDFacts publishes a range (low-high) to preserve privacy on small cohorts; we display the midpoint.
👩🏫 Teacher workforce · federal CRDC
Teacher experience & reliability
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2017-18 — the most recent vintage that publishes per-school teacher quality fields; the 2020-21 sweep had them suppressed). "Inexperienced" = teachers in their first or second year. "Chronic absence" = teachers absent 10+ days/year.
🏛️ Federal Title I context
Mixed-income school
Below Title I eligibility threshold (FRPL < 35%)
25-34% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. Below the federal Title I threshold but a meaningful share of the population is income-eligible for free lunch.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data, free/reduced-price lunch eligibility. The actual Title I designation is a district decision and may differ from eligibility — but the federal eligibility math is what we show here. We don't claim to assert whether the district formally chose to enroll this school in Title I.
🏛️ Your state's public flagship
University of Colorado Boulder
The in-state tuition gap is the flagship's biggest draw — most in-state families pay far less than the out-of-state sticker. Average net price after aid runs about $25,346/yr. Admission odds depend on your student's GPA and test scores, not which high school they attend.
Source: IPEDS admissions, tuition & enrollment + College Scorecard net price. Flagship = the state's primary public research university.
Chronic absenteeism
Why this matters to enrollment: Chronic absence is the strongest early indicator of dropout, transfer-out, and family disengagement. A school's absenteeism trend forecasts its enrollment trend 1-3 years out. For school leaders: an Enrollment Trend Audit traces this dynamic forward →
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020–2021. Rate = students chronically absent ÷ 2024 total enrollment.
Counselor capacity
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020-2021. Counselor ratio = the school's most recent total enrollment ÷ counselor FTE. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends a 250:1 maximum; the US national median across schools with on-staff counselors is roughly 430:1.
Enrollment trend & projection
Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).
If the recent trend holds…
At its recent rate of +1.4%/year, projecting from 2024's 406 students:
An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.
Revenue upside
At $14,645 per student in district revenue, the 29 students projected to be gained by 2029 represent ≈ $424,705/year in additional funding.
District total revenue ÷ enrollment, NCES F-33. Public funding largely follows enrollment, so a shrinking class is a recurring budget hit.
Most similar nearby high schools
The schools most like this one — same type, blended on distance and size — and where their enrollment is heading. These are the schools families here weigh against each other.
| School | Type | Miles | HS enrollment | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ridgeview Classical Schools FORT COLLINS |
Public · charter | 3.0 | 140 | +6.1% |
| Centennial High School FORT COLLINS |
Public | 2.0 | 118 | -5.6% |
| Poudre Community Academy FORT COLLINS |
Public | 1.1 | 203 | -23.1% |
| Harold Ferguson High School LOVELAND |
Public | 11.7 | 164 | +45.1% |
| Compass Community Collaborative School FORT COLLINS |
Public · charter | 2.1 | 82 | -8.9% |
| Ascent Classical Academy of Northern Colorado FORT COLLINS |
Public · charter | 3.5 | 83 | — |
| Loveland Classical School LOVELAND |
Public · charter | 13.8 | 200 | +61.3% |
| Liberty Common Charter School FORT COLLINS |
Public · charter | 4.4 | 335 | -7.2% |