Clayton Municipal Schools

Clayton Municipal Schools is a small New Mexico district serving about 397 students across four schools that together cover PK through 12th grade: Alvis Elementary (PK–4, 152 students), Kiser Elementary (grades 5–6, 63 students), Clayton Junior High (grades 7–8, 61 students), and Clayton High (grades 9–12, 121 students). The district ranks 14th of 87 in New Mexico, at the 84th percentile with 4 stars.

The middle grades are the district's academic engine. Clayton Junior High posts the strongest English language arts results at 71.15% proficiency, above both the district (62.12%) and the state (44.66%), while Kiser Elementary leads in math at 51.11%, well above the district's 40.60% and the state's 27.85%. Kiser's 5th-grade science reached 55.56%. Alvis Elementary shows the biggest ranking jump, from 150th of 345 (57th percentile) to 53rd of 346 (85th percentile, 4 stars), with ELA at 60%. Clayton High's clearest strength is its 84.4% graduation rate, above the state's 80.6%, though its reported 11th-grade ELA proficiency (33.33%) trails the state and its latest rank was 40th percentile.

Nearly every student qualifies for free or reduced lunch — 100% at Alvis Elementary, Kiser Elementary, and Clayton High, and 98.36% at Clayton Junior High — yet several schools still outperform the state by wide margins, showing that high economic need does not automatically mean low achievement. A dash means the state suppressed a figure to protect student privacy; these unknowns, including Clayton High's math and science results and Alvis Elementary's 4th-grade math, should not be read as zeroes or failures. With small grade-level cohorts, percentages can swing sharply year to year, and student-teacher ratios (7.4 at Clayton High to 13.6 at Kiser Elementary) do not line up simply with outcomes.