DSST: Cole High School
DENVER · CO · School District No. 1 in the county of Denver and State of C · Public charter
Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
Emily Griffith High School → Manual High School → Bruce Randolph School → Brady Exploration School → Mapleton Early Career Preparation → Colorado High School Charter - GES → Hidden Lake Secondary → Denver Center for International Studies →At a glance
- 5 AP courses offered — Strong
- Gifted & talented program
- 2 calculus classes · 3 physics · 4 chemistry
- AP rigor: 63rd percentile nationally
- SAT/ACT participation: 54th percentile by test-taker volume
- 4-yr grad rate: 87% in 2019 (Bottom 39% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts graduation data, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How DSST: Cole High School compares for families
Solid mid-tier academic profile.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor at the 63rd percentile nationally with 5 AP courses.
- ▸ LocallyCO students outperform the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (+4 points).
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Emily Griffith High School, Manual High School, Bruce Randolph School and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
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Objective, government-grade data — no school pays us for placement.
Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Strong — solid AP program + advanced courses
63rd percentile nationally
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). CRDC reports what's offered + enrolled — it doesn't collect AP exam pass rates (College Board owns that data and doesn't release it school-level).
SAT / ACT participation
CRDC federal data · 2020-2154th percentile 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?
Bottom 39% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate
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
High-poverty school
Title I Schoolwide eligible
≥75% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. These schools qualify for the highest tier of federal Title I funding and typically receive extra wraparound services. Academic outcomes vary widely — check the state assessment + grad-rate tiles.
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 most reliable early indicator that a student will leave a school — either by transferring out, dropping out, or matriculating to a charter or private alternative. At this level, today's absentees become next year's enrollment loss and the year-after's revenue loss.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020–2021. Rate = students chronically absent ÷ 2021 total enrollment.
Enrollment trend & projection
Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).
If the recent trend holds…
At its recent rate of -6.3%/year, projecting from 2024's 287 students:
≈ 80 fewer students by 2029 — a real revenue/relevance risk worth getting ahead of.
An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.
Revenue at risk
At $18,134 per student in district revenue, the 80 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $1,450,720/year in funding at risk.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emily Griffith High School DENVER |
Public | 1.5 | 311 | +20.5% |
| Manual High School DENVER |
Public | 0.4 | 348 | +11.2% |
| Bruce Randolph School DENVER |
Public | 1.1 | 368 | -4.2% |
| Brady Exploration School LAKEWOOD |
Public | 6.2 | 294 | +38.7% |
| Mapleton Early Career Preparation THORNTON |
Public | 6.6 | 306 | +9.7% |
| Colorado High School Charter - GES DENVER |
Public · charter | 1.3 | 209 | +43.2% |
| Hidden Lake Secondary WESTMINSTER |
Public | 5.7 | 338 | -23.4% |
| Denver Center for International Studies DENVER |
Public | 2.9 | 210 | -26.3% |