Douglas County schools earn state awards for growth, achievement

Douglas County schools from Lone Tree Elementary to ThunderRidge High School and STEM School Highlands Ranch were among the campuses the Colorado Department of Education recognized this spring for academic growth and achievement, giving families a countywide snapshot of where classroom performance is holding up.

The state split its honors into two main buckets. The Governor’s Distinguished Improvement Award goes to schools that exceed expectations on longitudinal academic growth over three years, while the John Irwin School of Excellence award goes to schools that exceed expectations on academic achievement over three years. In the 2025 award cycle, the department recognized 63 districts and 292 schools with 371 total awards, underscoring that these are selective distinctions rather than routine participation trophies.

For Douglas County, the list stretched across elementary, middle and high school levels, including Lone Tree Elementary, Mountain Ridge Middle School, Rocky Heights Middle School, Rock Canyon High School, ThunderRidge High School and STEM School Highlands Ranch, along with other schools in Castle Rock, Parker, Highlands Ranch and Lone Tree. That spread matters. It suggests the district’s strongest results are not confined to one signature campus, but are showing up in multiple parts of the system.

Rock Canyon High School also stood out in a separate category, earning the state’s High School Academic Growth Award. That honor goes to high schools with the highest levels of student growth in reading, writing and math within their athletic classification, making it a sharper measure of progress than simple proficiency counts. For parents, that kind of award says more about what students are gaining from year to year than a single test snapshot.

The pattern also hints at sustained performance, not a one-time spike. Douglas County School District highlighted similar state recognition in 2025 for awards tied to the 2023 and 2024 school years, with repeat names such as Lone Tree Elementary, Rock Canyon High School, Rocky Heights Middle School, STEM School Highlands Ranch and ThunderRidge High School. That overlap suggests some schools have built durable academic momentum, while the absence of a districtwide, all-campus sweep shows the celebration still leaves room for parents to look closely at individual schools, not just the county label attached to them.