La Cueva High

La Cueva High is a large public comprehensive high school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, serving roughly 1,826 students in grades 9 through 12 as part of Albuquerque Public Schools, and it is one of the state's strongest high schools even though its district ranks near the bottom third of New Mexico (55th of 87, two stars). La Cueva ranked 18th of 132 high schools statewide in 2025–2026 — the 86th percentile with four stars — after several years as a five-star, top-10 school. That makes it a high-performing island inside a district that otherwise struggles.

Academically, results are well above district and state averages. In 2025–2026, La Cueva posted 71.06% proficiency in Language Arts, 43.29% in Math and 51.73% in Science; on SAT School Day it posted 71.5% in ELA and 43.69% in Math. Its 2024–2025 graduation rate was 89.5%, above the district's 75.6% and the state's 80.6%. Compared with nearby schools, La Cueva is the strongest large traditional APS high school here: Sandia High graduates 82.7% and Del Norte High 69.4%, with much lower ELA and math proficiency. Two nearby schools edge it out — Cottonwood Classical Prep (1st of 132, 96.7% graduation, higher scores in every major subject) and Nex Gen Academy (14th of 132, stronger science).

The state also ranks schools on how well they serve particular student groups, and La Cueva has historically been very effective on these measures. In 2025–2026, its multiracial student ranking is 1st of 13, female students 11th of 95 and male students 19th of 100, though rankings for low-income, Hispanic and White students have slipped from earlier peaks while remaining above average. The school is large, but its student-teacher ratio improved to 14.9 in 2024–2025 from 18.6 the year before. Two data caveats: 10th-grade test scores were suppressed by the state and are simply unknown, and the 2024–2025 free/reduced lunch figure of 96.82% points to a reporting change rather than a real one-year shift, so it should not be compared with earlier years.