Colorado Springs: Education and Research

Elementary and Secondary Schools

In Colorado, school district boundaries are independent of city or other political boundaries. There are 15 public school districts within El Paso County; six districts of varying size serve urban areas of Colorado Springs. Colorado Springs School District Eleven, the fourth largest system in the state and largest in the city, is administered by a seven-member, nonpartisan board of education that appoints a superintendent to a two-year contract. Composite SAT scores are consistently above the national average.

The following is a summary of data regarding Colorado Springs School District Eleven as of the 2002–2003 school year.

Total enrollment: 32,368

Number of facilities

elementary schools: 39

junior high/middle schools: 9

senior high schools: 9 other: 6

Student/teacher ratio: 16.9:1

Teacher salaries

minimum: $27,217

maximum: $63,668

Funding per pupil: $7,298 (2002-2003)

About 7,300 students attend 39 parochial and private schools in Colorado Springs, Pre-K through 12th grade. Pine Creek High School, a $16 million technology magnet school, opened in 1998; the school prepares students for college or employment in regional business and provides them with a sense of community.

Public Schools Information: Colorado Springs School District Eleven, 1115 North El Paso Street, Colorado Springs, CO 80903; telephone (719)520-2000; fax (719)577-4546

Colleges and Universities

The Colorado Springs area is home to 20 colleges and universities, including the United States Air Force Academy, the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and Colorado College. The University of Colorado is a state school offering both undergraduate and master's degrees in interdisciplinary programs such as geography, earth sciences, and environmental studies. Colorado College, opened in 1874, has grown with the city, and offers an unusual learning environment: the Block Plan has students take only one intensive course at a time. Thirty technical, professional, and business schools, including Colorado Technical College, are also located in Colorado Springs.

Libraries and Research Centers

The Pikes Peak Library District (PPLD) serves the residents of El Paso County except Manitou Springs and Widefield School District #3. Residents in those two areas can check out PPLD materials through the Colorado Library Card program. Library facilities include two main facilities—Penrose Public Library and the East Library and Information Center—9 branches, and two bookmobiles for the city and county. A new building for the Fountain Branch is scheduled for completion in the spring of 2006. The library district maintains several diverse and specialized collections. The circulating collection includes books, vertical file materials, audio and video cassettes, record albums, CDs, and DVDs. The library subscribes to hundreds of periodicals and newspapers. The Local History and Genealogy collections, housed in the 1905 Carnegie Library, include books, photographs, manuscripts, maps, blueprints, newspapers, city directories, oral histories, and other items spanning more than 125 years of local and regional history. About 30 other libraries and research centers are housed in the city; most are affiliated with educational institutions, government agencies, hospitals, and churches. The United States Air Force Academy Library, with more than 300,000 volumes, maintains a collection on aeronautics history before 1910; special interests also include falconry and military history. The Charles Leaming Tutt Library at Colorado College houses 435,000 volumes, plus 1,300 periodicals, a government documents repository, the college's Special Collections & Archives, and the Crown Tapper Teaching & Learning Center devoted to exploring ways to improve teaching in the electronic age.

Public Library Information: Pikes Peak Library District, 5550 North Union Boulevard, PO Box 1579, Colorado Springs, CO 80918; telephone (719)531-6333