VALLEY— While most San Luis Valley school districts have positive accreditation statuses, five districts were downgraded, according to accreditation statuses released by Colorado Department of Education on Wednesday.

Center, South Conejos, Del Norte, Sanford and Sargent dropped in their statuses. However, no districts in Colorado earned the lowest ranking of “Turnaround.”

A total of 30 districts received the highest rating of “Distinction,” including North Conejos, Sangre De Cristo and Creede, and 90 received the second-highest rating of “Accredited.” Sixty-five percent of Colorado’s 184 districts and BOCES received the top two accreditation ratings.

Only nine districts, including South Conejos, were on “Priority Improvement,” representing just 2.7 percent of all Colorado students.

“We are pleased with the success around the state, which is the result of hard work by students, teachers and administrators,” Colorado Education Commissioner Katy Anthes said in a press release. “These ratings allow us to identify districts that need more state support and intervention, but also districts where we can learn from their success. While we are proud of the progress we are making, we know we still have a long way to go to meet the academic needs of many of our students.”

District ratings are based on a number of performance indicators, including student achievement and growth on state assessments as well as postsecondary readiness measures.

In late August, districts received their preliminary ratings and had until Oct. 16 to submit additional evidence for the commissioner’s reconsideration. Twenty districts requested reconsideration, and a total of 15 districts had their ratings increased through the request to reconsider process and one additional approval is pending the school performance rating in December.

Alamosa School District

2017 Rating: Accredited with Improvement Plan

2016 Rating: Accredited with Improvement Plan

Centennial School District

2017 Rating: Accredited

2016 Rating: Accredited

Center School District

2017 Rating: Accredited with Improvement Plan

2016 Rating: Accredited

North Conejos School District

2017 Rating: Accredited with Distinction 

2016 Rating: Accredited with Distinction

South Conejos School District

2017 Rating: Accredited with Priority Improvement Plan

2016 Rating: Accredited with Improvement Plan

Creede Consolidated School District

2017 Rating: Accredited with Distinction

2016 Rating: Accredited with Distinction

Del Norte School District

2017 Rating: Accredited with Improvement Plan

2016 Rating: Accredited

Moffat Consolidated School District

2017 Rating: Accredited

2016 Rating: Accredited

Monte Vista School District

2017 Rating: Accredited with Improvement Plan

2016 Rating: Accredited with Improvement Plan

Mountain Valley School District

2017 Rating: Accredited with Improvement Plan           

2016 Rating: Accredited with Improvement Plan

Sanford School District

2017 Rating: Accredited

2016 Rating: Accredited with Distinction

Sangre De Cristo School District

2017 Rating: Accredited with Distinction

2016 Rating: Accredited with Distinction

Sargent School District

2017 Rating: Accredited

2016 Rating: Accredited with Distinction

Sierra Grande School District

2017 Rating: Accredited

2016 Rating: Accredited