Best Public Schools in Melrose, NM

Melrose, New Mexico is a small, rural community served by three public schools — an elementary school serving PK–5, a junior high serving grades 6–8, and a high school serving grades 9–12 — all operated by Melrose Public Schools and all located at the same address, 100 Missouri Ave. Total enrollment across the three is 271 students: Melrose Elementary is the largest at about 120 students, followed by Melrose High with 79 and Melrose Junior with 72. Nearly every student — roughly 99% across the district — qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch.

Each school's academic profile looks different. Melrose Elementary posts the strongest English language arts results in the group at 53.57% proficient, about 9 points above the state, but its math proficiency of 19.64% falls roughly 8 points below the state. Melrose Junior shows the opposite pattern: math proficiency of 31.91% runs about 4 points above the state, while its ELA of 38.3% is roughly 6 points below. Melrose High is above the state in both reported subjects — 45% in 11th grade ELA and 40% in 11th grade science — but its math results are suppressed, so performance there is unknown.

Recent rankings show a shared downward shift in 2025–26. Melrose Elementary moved from the 91st percentile with 5 stars to the 75th percentile with 4 stars; Melrose High dropped from the 90th percentile with 5 stars to the 63rd percentile with 3 stars; and Melrose Junior has no 2025–26 rank listed, though it was at the 89th percentile with 4 stars the prior year. Several scores, including science at the elementary and junior high and math at the high school, are withheld by the state to protect student privacy and should be read as unknown rather than as failure. Melrose Public Schools is ranked 31 of 87 districts at the 64th percentile with 3 stars, and the high school reported a 91.8% graduation rate for 2023–24. With only 72–120 students per school, year-to-year swings can be driven by a handful of students and should be interpreted cautiously.