Summary:
The small town of Penasco, New Mexico is home to a single public middle school, Penasco Middle, which serves grades 6-8 with a total enrollment of 69 students. While the school has seen improvements in its ranking over the past few years, moving from 93rd out of 239 schools in 2022-2023 to 64th out of 192 schools in 2024-2025, it still faces some academic challenges.
Penasco Middle School's performance in English Language Arts (ELA) is slightly below the state average, with proficiency rates of 40% compared to the state's 44.19%. However, the school's 8th-grade ELA proficiency rate is higher than the state average at 57.89% versus 46.45%. In Mathematics, the school's proficiency rates are significantly lower than the state average, at just 10% compared to 26.81%. On the other hand, Penasco Middle School's 8th-grade Science proficiency rate is higher than the state average, at 52.63% versus 34.46%.
One notable factor about Penasco Middle School is its high percentage of free and reduced-price lunch recipients, at 97.1% for the 2023-2024 school year. This suggests that the school serves a predominantly low-income student population, which can present unique challenges and resource needs. Additionally, the school's student-teacher ratio of 30.1 is higher than the state average, which may also be a contributing factor to its academic performance. Despite these challenges, Penasco Middle School has shown signs of improvement, and continued efforts to address areas of weakness, such as Mathematics proficiency, could help the school further enhance its overall performance and ranking among New Mexico middle schools.
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