Colorado Early College Fort Collins in Fort Collins

Category	Rating	Details
Test Scores	7/10	The Test Score Rating examines how students at this school performed on standardized tests compared with other schools in the state. The Test Rating was created using 2025 Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) data from Colorado Department of Education.
College Readiness	8/10	The College Readiness Rating uses this high school's graduation rates, college entrance exam participation and performance, or AP, IB, or Dual Enrollment participation to determine how well schools are preparing students for success in college and beyond. The College Readiness Rating was created using the following data from the 2021 Civil Rights Data Collection: percentage of students enrolled in IB, AP or Dual Enrollment classes in grades 9-12, using 2025 4-year high school graduation rate data from Colorado Department of Education, using 2025 Average SAT score data from Colorado Department of Education, and using 2025 demographic data from the National Center for Education Statistics.

Posted: June 30, 2026

My autistic son has the best integrated services team he has ever had. Accomodations and cooperative teachers has helped him love learning. The team is quick to adjust things in the classroom as needed and amend his IEP. Ms. Gilpin is amazing. Communication, progress reporting, and responsiveness to concerns are excellent.

Posted: November 10, 2025

This school is cooked. The lunches are borderline inedible and the kids say slurs like it's their favorite word.

Posted: November 3, 2025

When I first left Timnath Middle High School, I was excited thinking CEC MS was a glamorous campus with great teachers and academics, sports, and actually edible food, but I was met instantly with red flags, specifically lots of racial slurs from students and homophobic jokes such as your gay because you hug your friend and other stuff like that except much worse. The teachers are mostly pretty good and definitely qualified but some specifically the older teachers do not understand students as much and care more about the money or more about just getting through the year, specifically classes like science which is basically a textbook class, I mean I understand not all science is going outside and studying organisms and stuff but this curriculum is so terrible that my best friend got suspending for a week for sleeping in class and he loves school! I also thought the food for the middle school would be good, but once again, I was wrong, the only vaguely edible things were the hot dogs, mandarin orange chicken, and the pepperoni pizza. Now the community specifically is not very diverse and I constantly see bullying targeted more to like the smart kind of annoying kids who did nothing wrong. Another thing is the school models themselves as a likable and an easy path through college, however its the complete opposite, its just a money hungry company who buys an old office building and calls it a school, at least the high school is actually a high school, I mean I heard about a different CEC school that was sandwiched between a trampoline park and a weapons store which is very stupid if you ask me. Now on to the electives, the school acts like its super poor and the material we have for electives and very rushed and poor, Gym is one of the vaguely decent programs while the music programs need more love and attention I mean I am in the choir and let me just say how are twenty people supposed to sing carol of the bells. Now for kids who have 504s you guys have it the worse, I mean the school says they wont tell who has 504s but they make it so obvious by pulling kids out of class and treating them differently from other kids. I also see these kids get bullied often. However some of the pluses are for kids who are super smart (not me) have a super duper easy path to college but for most normal kids like me forced to go here, you face the consequences of leaving behind the good old traditional middle school or high school to this absolute dump. Dont enroll!

Posted: October 22, 2024

I have two children at Colorado early College, Fort Collins, one in the high school and one in the middle school. We were excited about a lot of things going into this experience however one big negative about them going this year is the school lunches. When we were touring the school the principles of both schools raved about how delicious the lunches were. I dont know what happened, but they no longer have school cooks. They now have hired some service that makes gross food and seals it in plastic and mails it to all of their schools. The breaded meat and the sandwich bread is always soggy when they open the seal of these warmed up microwaved meals Often times my children come home saying they couldnt eat lunch again. This is a big deal. We were promised that they would get fresh lunches made from really good cooks that worked in the schools and now they have outsourced it to some Disgusting cheap alternative option. Im sure that they are saving money, but at what cost to our childrens health? We are considering switching schools for this one reason.

Posted: October 10, 2022

I am very grateful for this school. My daughter asked to switch to CEC this year after a really tough year at a High School in Fort Collins. She has found everything she was hoping to find here:
A diverse population of students who are kind and accepting of one another's differences
Teachers who show up each day with quality content and engage and support students' success
Support and guidance to make the most of their time and High School experience
Fellow students who also show up ready to learn and not looking to engage in distracting and unhealthy behaviors

She is being challenged more than she has ever. She is not a "gifted or talented" student. Just a hard worker who does like to learn. I am so happy to see her connecting with other students, still keeping her grades up even though the bar is higher, and more than anything else she is just happy to go to school every day. It has been a great fit for our family, and it is well worth coordinating the transportation!
I am really grateful for this school!

Posted: November 11, 2020

Leadership is severely under qualified to help students and/ or teachers.

Posted: November 11, 2020

It favors conservatism and shuns differences and/ or diversity.

Posted: November 11, 2020

Poor: leadership is full of nepotism instead of qualification and experience. Very few electives are offered and leadership plays favorites. It is run like a business, not a school.

Posted: November 11, 2020

It is not a diverse place and issues like racism and homophobia are simply ignored.

Posted: November 11, 2020

Leadership doesnt have educational degrees or background, much less state licenses.

Posted: June 6, 2020

They always make sure that everybody is comfortable in this school. They are very flexible for different types of students.

Posted: June 6, 2020

No bullies at this school that aren't talked to.

Posted: June 6, 2020

Almost all teachers are compassionate and care about the students and they understand the students and make life at school enjoyable.

Posted: June 6, 2020

Lots of leadership here. Principal is very helpful, and other faculty.

Posted: June 6, 2020

This is a great school. They can make almost all students comfortable there and I'm happy and doing very well there.

Posted: June 6, 2020

They don't give much homework that you don't have a chance to do in school, every Tuesday you can do all your homework in a certain class, and overall it doesn't give much homework at all.

Posted: May 22, 2020

I would not recommend this school. It is inflexible, conservative, and strict. It does not provide a true high school experience where students have freedoms of any kind.

Posted: May 22, 2020

Posted: February 15, 2019

Have had a very disappointing experience with both a middle schooler and a high schooler. They seem so concerned about pushing these kids faster, harder, and smarter that the stress level is through the roof. Seems their #1 goal is to get the largest percentage of their student body to graduate with an Associates Degree and that's what drives them. They assure parents that they care about each individual child and will only push those who are ready, and that they absoutely accommodate "kids of all learning levels." I have not found that to be true. They want every kid possible to be doing high school coursework while in the middle school, and college coursework while in the high school. They have almost no electives at all, no sports, and no school spirit or camaraderie. It also turns out that some REQUIRED classes for students to graduate are only offered at the college level! So even the lowest achieving kids (i.e. those with 504 accommodations, for example) will be taking college classes, like it or not! The worst of all is that they don't take the parents word for it when the kids are home sick. Those are considered unexcused absences unless you have a doctor's note -- and unexcused absences mean grade deductions on your report card! So parents are incentivized to either send sick kids to school or cough up the cost and time-wasted to drag kids to the doctor when they should just be at home resting! (Last visit to the doctor: Me: "I'm so sorry to bother you. I'm sure he just has a virus and should really be home resting, but the school requires me to get a doctor's note" Doctor: "Don't tell me, (child's name) goes to CEC? Yes, we agree it's ridiculous... it's actually been a topic of discussion here, having kids who are already sick worrying themselves sick about grade deductions for being sick!") The woman running the middle school always has a scowl on her face. One of the most unpleasant people I've met. And the high school is going through a HUGE head-of-school faculty change right now so we'll see how that plays out. In short, CEC might be great for super smart kids who want to rush into college, but it lacks so much "else" of a well-rounded high school experience (electives, clubs, social opportunities, sports) that the trade offs aren't worth it.

Posted: February 15, 2019

Posted: October 31, 2018

We havent experienced bullying so we have no experience with this.

Posted: October 31, 2018

Its dependant on their course level. I love that they teach them to study.

Posted: October 31, 2018

Amazing, intelligent teachers who are knowledgeable in their content areas.

Posted: October 31, 2018

Clear and consistent. I feel safe sending my student to that school.

Posted: October 31, 2018

Lots of options for support. Tutoring and teachers with office hours.

Posted: October 31, 2018

A 10 for the gifted learner. Lots of options for career development based on my students individual interests.

Posted: October 30, 2018

Bullying never happened in my kids experience!

Posted: October 30, 2018

Our experience was this college prep school is outstanding! My oldest son was an off-campus (distance) student who started taking college classes at our local FRCC through CECFC. He met with academic advisors frequently who counseled him through both high school graduation requirements and college AA degree requirements, with advice on which classes would transfer to a four year college. The result was that he graduated from high school with his associates degree. Then he went onto a very difficult 4 year school and finished in 2 years because his community college classes transferred in. The college classes he completed helped him get into the 4 year school (that has a low acceptance rate.) My oldest was Career-ready when he graduated and is working in his "dream job." My second son did the same with CECFC. He graduated from CECFC as the salutatorian with an AA. In fact, 64 percent of his 2018 graduation class (121 out of 190) graduated with an associate degree. This son got a presidential scholarship at a large university and will finish a double major in 3 yrs. He is thrilled to have completed so many prerequisites - he has not met any other freshman who has junior standing walking in (those that took dual credit or AP classes brag about 30 credits - my son entered his four-year with over 70 at a top-performing high school!) My third son is on the same track and loves his classes. I love that they thought about a future beyond high school when they were just high school students. They have become very forward thinking because of this top Colorado high school. In fact, once they entered the four year school, they were thinking about internships and jobs, which is not typical of most freshman. And they were well prepared for the college work load as well as navigating classes and relating to professors in a professional manner. Moreover, CECFC takes into consideration the unique path of each student. They require meetings with the parent and student to assess progress and whether they are college ready for college level coursework. There is no better school for top performing students than CECFC!

Posted: October 30, 2018

The homework was tailored to what they were learning and was not excessive. It appropriately reinforced the concepts taught.

Posted: October 30, 2018

The teachers were actually community college professors. They taught very effectively and my three children who have gone through the program have loved the community college classroom experience.

Posted: October 30, 2018

They are required to do certain projects and outreach for graduation that has them serving in the community. I think it did help develop these character traits.

Posted: October 30, 2018

Posted: March 5, 2018

Very disappointed. Faculty will not work with parents. Sports not excused, grades penalized for unexcused absences. Only way they excuse is with doctor note no matter if parent calls in or not, limited school spirit and hardly any activities. Poor high school experience imo...only care about cranking out kids with those associate degrees.

Posted: March 5, 2018

Posted: January 10, 2018

Great school. Daughter has been attending for two years and is half way done with her Associates in Science through Front Range. Flexible scheduling, free tutoring, and an amazing scratch kitchen make this one of the best High Schools in the area!

Posted: January 10, 2018

Colorado Early College Fort Collins

Fort Collins, CO 80525

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Colorado Early College Fort Collins

Fort Collins, CO 80525

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