Nome Public Schools

Nome Public Schools is a small Alaska district serving roughly 672 students in four schools spanning pre-K through grade 12 in the remote community of Nome. The district overall is rated in the bottom quarter of Alaska districts, and nearly every student in its three main schools comes from an economically disadvantaged household, with free/reduced lunch rates of 99–100%. While the district’s overall proficiency in science, English language arts, and math is well below state averages, one school stands out clearly as a local success story.

Anvil City Science Academy is the district’s highest-performing school and the only one that beats Alaska’s statewide averages in all three tested subjects, despite having 100% poverty. Its proficiency rates are roughly 45% in science, 37% in ELA, and 43% in math, and its ranking has improved to the 59th percentile among Alaska middle schools. In contrast, Nome-Beltz Middle/High posts the lowest scores in the district, with just 4% math proficiency and 10% ELA proficiency. These two schools share the same campus and overlapping grade levels, yet 6th grade math proficiency is 40% at Anvil versus 7.7% at Nome-Beltz, pointing to large differences in model or student selection. Nome Elementary shows a mixed picture: 3rd grade reading proficiency is just 12%, a troubling early-literacy signal, though its science results improved recently. Extensions Correspondence serves 32 students in a K–12 alternative program and reports only one test score, with a 50% graduation rate.

Financially, higher spending does not guarantee better outcomes: Nome-Beltz spends more per student than any other school in the district, yet records the weakest academic results. Meanwhile Anvil City Science Academy spends less and outperforms it dramatically. The district’s four-year graduation rate is 76%, and Nome-Beltz graduates 80.9% of its students, which is higher than the district as a whole even as test scores remain very low. For parents, the central takeaway is that high poverty does not predetermine failure—Anvil proves that students in Nome can meet or exceed state standards. The sharpest challenge is secondary math and literacy at Nome-Beltz, while early elementary reading also demands attention if future improvement is to occur.