Middle Schools in Gadsden Independent Schools

Middle Schools in Gadsden Independent Schools consist of three schools serving grades 7–8 — Gadsden Middle, Chaparral Middle, and Santa Teresa Middle — with a combined enrollment of 1,724 students. Gadsden Middle is the largest (650 students), followed by Chaparral (546) and Santa Teresa (528). Nearly every student qualifies for free or reduced lunch (99.85% at Gadsden, 100% at the other two), and student/teacher ratios are similar across all three, ranging only from 13.1 to 13.7. The district itself ranks 54 of 87 in New Mexico, at the 38th percentile with 2 stars.

Performance differs sharply among the three. Santa Teresa Middle is the clear standout: it is the only school at 3 stars, ranked 65 of 191 (66th percentile), with ELA at 56.86% and 8th-grade science at 41.4% — above both district and state. Its science score jumped from 21.99% to 41.4% in a single year. Gadsden Middle shows the steepest decline, falling from 3 stars and the 48th percentile in 2023–2024 to 1 star and the 23rd percentile in 2025–2026, with the lowest math (15.87%) and science (22.61%) of the group. Chaparral Middle sits in the middle at 2 stars and the 30th percentile; its bright spot is 8th-grade math at 20%, above the district's 18.7% but just below the state's 20.5%.

For parents, two patterns stand out. First, these schools are polarized: Santa Teresa performs above district and state in several subjects, while the other two generally fall below. Second, ELA outperforms math at every school, though by differing margins, and math is the weaker subject across the board — no middle school here reaches the district's 32.47% math average. Because free-lunch rates and class sizes are nearly identical, those structural factors alone do not explain the differences in outcomes.