Desert Ridge Middle

Desert Ridge Middle is a 6–8 school at 8400 Barstow NE in Albuquerque's northeast heights, serving 801 students — the largest middle school in its local comparison group — as part of Albuquerque Public Schools. Its defining feature is a striking contrast with its own district: APS ranks 55th of 87 in New Mexico (37th percentile, 2 stars), while Desert Ridge has earned 5 stars and a state percentile that has never fallen below 93 across ten consecutive reported years, including a #12 ranking out of 191 schools in 2025–26.

Academically, the school's results run roughly double district and state levels. In 2025–26, 69.29% of students were proficient in ELA and 62.37% in math, against district and state math rates under 28%. Among nearby middle schools, Desert Ridge ranks 2nd of 9 and is the top math and science performer in the entire local group — ahead of Eisenhower Middle in math (61.09% vs. 57.25%) and 8th-grade science, though Eisenhower leads in reading. The next closest school, Hoover Middle, is 19 percentile points behind. Results hold across all three grade levels and have stayed stable over four years, suggesting consistency rather than one strong class.

Notably, these outcomes are broadly distributed: low-income students ranked at the 89th–97th percentile statewide and English language learners at the 86th–89th across three straight years. The school achieves this with a mid-pack student-teacher ratio of 12.6, improved from 13.6 three years ago. Two items to watch: math proficiency tapers from 6th grade to 8th grade, and special education rankings dropped to the 58th–60th percentile in the last two years — though those cohorts were very small, so read it as a signal rather than a firm trend.