School District Honored Regaining ‘Accredited with Distinction’ Title

After several years lacking as a result of COVID and its aftermath, as well as a changing and ever-small student demographic, Hinsdale County School District and Lake City Community School have once again received a superlative ranking in the state.
School Superintendent Rebecca Hall smiles broadly, and her enthusiasm is contagious as she confirms Colorado Department of Education has once again bestowed its top academic ranking, “Accredited with Distinction”, on the school district, one of just 18 — just eight percent — school districts in the state to receive the rankling.
In the most recently announced state ranking, and with Hinsdale County School District among the top eight percent out of a total of 183 school districts in the state, a majority of districts in the ranking — 107 or 49 percent — received the “Accredited” ranking and 27 percent — 58 districts — were bluntly cited as “Needing Improvement”.
Due to the small student population at Lake City Community School, the distinctive rating is the result of cumulative three-year analysis of Lake City students’ academic proficiency based on achievement, academic growth, and post-secondary workforce readiness as seen through graduation benchmarks, SAT scores, and dropout rates.
Cumulative scoring for the school was based on 2rd through 8th Grade Math, English and Language Arts academic testing, 5th and 8th Grade Science for middle school students and, for high schoolers Grades 9-11, English, Language Arts, and Science as seen through SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) and PSAT (Pre-Scholastic Aptitude Test) scoring.
High school seniors are not included in the cumulative test scores, although 12th Graders are figured into the academic computation based on dropout rates.
Lake City School’s routinely fine academic outcomes resulted in Colorado Dept. of Education bestowing Accredited with Distinction each consecutive year from 2009 through 2017.