High Schools in Nome Public Schools

The Nome Public Schools district has one high school, Nome-Beltz Middle/High, a combined campus serving grades 6–12 in Nome, Alaska, with 274 students enrolled. Because it is the district's only high school, it is the standout school by default, and its results can only be benchmarked against the district as a whole and Alaska statewide averages. The school has historically ranked near the very bottom of Alaska's high school rankings — it was last (63rd of 63) in 2023–2024, before improving to 57th of 60 in 2024–2025 and 56th of 62 in 2025–2026, when it earned one star for the first time. That shows modest upward movement, though it still sits in the bottom 10% of the state.

Academic proficiency is the greatest concern for parents to understand. Mathematics proficiency is extraordinarily low, with just 4.08% of all students proficient, compared with 18.16% for the district and 32.2% statewide. English Language Arts proficiency is 10.2% overall, less than one-third of the state's 32.89%. Science proficiency is 16.25%, well below the district's 25.64% and the state's 37.81%. There are a few bright spots: 9th grade ELA proficiency reached 17.5%, slightly above the district's 15.56%, and 10th grade science proficiency of 20.45% edged past the district's 19.57%, though both remain far behind state averages. Notably, 99.64% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, meaning nearly the entire student body comes from economically disadvantaged households.

Despite low test scores, the graduation rate is a positive indicator: Nome-Beltz reported an 80.9% graduation rate for 2024–2025, exceeding the district's 76.0%. The school also has a favorable student-teacher ratio of 12.7 to 1 and relatively high per-student spending of $20,511, resources that could support improvement despite the deep challenges of poverty and geographic isolation. Parents should also keep in mind that because the school combines middle and high school grades, the "All Grades" proficiency scores include 6th grade results, which can skew the overall picture. Overall, this is a high-need school with significant academic struggles, but it shows signs of gradual progress and has a foundation to build on.