Middle Schools in Deming Public Schools

There are two middle-level schools in Deming Public Schools: Red Mountain Middle, which serves grades 7–8 with 746 students, and Deming Intermediate, which serves grade 6 only with 373 students — 1,119 students combined, with Red Mountain holding exactly twice the enrollment. Both serve near-universal economically disadvantaged populations, with free/reduced lunch at 99.6% and 100%. The district itself ranks 72nd of 87 in New Mexico, at the 17th percentile with 1 star.

Comparing the two, Deming Intermediate has generally stronger math. In 2024–25 its math proficiency was 27.51%, above the district's 20.27% and above the state's 26.81% — the only clear above-state result that year. In 2025–26 its grade-6 math was 27.87%, still ahead of Red Mountain's all-grade 21.2%, and the two schools were essentially tied in ELA (37.38% vs. 37.11%). Red Mountain Middle shows a genuine bright spot in 7th-grade math, at 33.33% versus the state's 26.93%, and a serious red flag in 8th-grade math, at just 9.14% versus the state's 20.29% — more than 11 points below state and the sharpest weakness in the data.

Red Mountain is clearly improving: from 2024–25 to 2025–26 its ELA rose 4.86 points, math 7.63 points, and 8th-grade science 7.28 points, and its rank climbed from 163 of 192 (15th percentile, 1 star) to 122 of 191 (36th percentile, 2 stars). Deming Intermediate was essentially flat in math and slightly down in ELA, so it slipped from above state to below state; its 2-star rating came in 2023–24, at 109 of 165. Across the middle grades, 7th grade peaks and 8th grade drops sharply, especially in math. Note that Deming Intermediate's latest scores are grade-6 only while Red Mountain's are all-grade, so compare grade by grade.