Middle Schools in Albuquerque Public Schools

There are 26 middle schools serving grades 6–8 in Albuquerque Public Schools, enrolling 11,466 students in total — an average of about 441 students per school. The largest is Tony Hillerman Middle School at 860 students, while Polk Middle is the smallest at 222. The district overall is rated 55th of 87 in New Mexico, at the 37th percentile with 2 stars, and free/reduced lunch averages about 99.2% across these schools, so near-universal high poverty is a district-wide condition rather than something that separates one school from another.

The most important thing for parents to know is how wide the gap is between schools. Only two schools earn 5 stars: Desert Ridge Middle (ranked 12th of 191 statewide, 94th percentile) and Eisenhower Middle (14th, 93rd percentile). Both sit in the top 10% of New Mexico middle schools and post proficiency far above state and district levels — Desert Ridge’s math proficiency of 62.37% is more than double the state’s 27.85%. Three more schools are 4-star and in the top quartile: Roosevelt Middle, Tony Hillerman Middle School, and Hoover Middle. The gap between groups is roughly 44 points in ELA and 42 points in math.

At the other end, 10 schools hold 0 stars, and 13 of the 26 fall in the bottom quartile statewide. Van Buren Middle ranks 191st of 191; Kennedy Middle has math proficiency of 3.08%; Polk Middle is under 5% in math; and Wilson Middle is under 10% in science. Math is the weakest and most uneven subject. Notably, smaller schools are often the lowest performers, and low student-teacher ratios do not line up with higher scores here — the top five schools average about 13.4:1, the bottom five about 11.0:1.