Reginald Chavez Elementary

Reginald Chavez Elementary is a small PK–5 neighborhood school in Albuquerque's Old Town and Mountain Road area, serving 174 students as part of Albuquerque Public Schools. Every student qualified for free or reduced-price lunch in each of the last three years, and staffing has grown steadily tighter — from 10.0 to 9.6 to 8.7 students per teacher — giving the school smaller classes than most of its neighbors.

On 2025-26 state tests, 33.72% of students were proficient in English language arts and 19.77% in math, compared with about 43.55% and 25.74% in the district and 43.34% and 25.54% statewide. Those results are below average, but they are climbing: ELA proficiency has risen from 21% to 33.72% over three years, and math has nearly doubled from a 2023-24 low of 9%. Even so, the school's statewide rank slipped from the 35th to the 26th percentile, because New Mexico as a whole is improving too. Chavez placed 255th of 346 New Mexico elementary schools (26th percentile, 1 star) in 2025-26 — roughly back to where it stood a decade ago, after a low of 7th percentile in 2018-19.

Results vary widely by grade. Fifth grade is the bright spot: 42.86% proficient in ELA, just above the state average of 41.98% and the only grade-level result where Chavez beats the state. Fourth grade ELA, at 32.26%, trails the district (49.51%) and state (50.36%) by roughly 18 points, and third grade results were suppressed by the state for privacy. Among nearby schools, Chavez ranks 7th of 10 in ELA but 4th of 10 in math — an unusually balanced profile. Coronado Dual Language Magnet serves a similarly low-income population yet reaches the 73rd percentile, showing demographics alone do not set the ceiling; Montessori Of The Rio Grande tops the local group at the 92nd percentile, while Lavaland Elementary, Valle Vista Elementary and Susie Rayos Marmon Elementary sit near the bottom of the state.