Albuquerque Public Schools

Albuquerque Public Schools serves roughly 73,744 students across 168 schools — 99 elementary, 26 middle, 36 high and 7 alternative — spread across the Albuquerque metro area, from 15-student specialized programs to 2,000-student comprehensive high schools; the district itself ranks 55th of 87 New Mexico districts (37th percentile, 2 stars), though that is a district-level figure, not a school-level one.

Performance varies dramatically from school to school. Among elementaries, Double Eagle Elementary ranks 4 of 346 and Desert Willow Family School posts language arts 83.6 with math 74.6, while Mountain View Elementary and Navajo Elementary sit at 346 of 346 with language arts around 8–18. For middle schools, Desert Ridge Middle (12 of 191, 94th percentile) and Eisenhower Middle (14 of 191) contrast sharply with Van Buren Middle at 191 of 191 and Kennedy Middle at 190. High school leaders include Early College Academy (4 of 132), College And Career High School, Nex Gen Academy and La Cueva High — the one large comprehensive high school near the top — while Siembra Leadership High School and Rio Grande High rank near the bottom.

Three patterns matter most. First, math is a system-wide weak spot: La Cueva High shows language arts 71.06 against math 43.29, and the district average is language arts 43.55 versus math 25.74. Second, poverty does not automatically mean low performance — S. Y. Jackson Elementary reports 100% free/reduced lunch yet ranks among the top elementaries. Third, graduation rates and test proficiency can diverge, as at South Valley Academy, which graduates 92.5% while ranking 110 of 132. Because many small and alternative schools report suppressed or bounded values (—, under 10%), the fairest comparisons are within the same school level.