Cloudcroft High

Cloudcroft High is the only high school in Cloudcroft Municipal Schools, serving 138 students in grades 9–12 in the Sacramento Mountains of southern New Mexico, where the closest comparable high schools are Tularosa High and Alamogordo High, about 18 and 13 miles away.

This school has one of the strongest long-run records in the state. From 2013–14 through 2023–24 it never fell below the 76th percentile among New Mexico high schools, hitting the 90th percentile with 5 stars in both 2021–22 and 2023–24. The current year breaks that pattern: 58th percentile, 3 stars for 2025–26. Because the state's ranking pool shrank from 170–198 schools to 132, part of that shift may reflect a different comparison group rather than a pure performance change. Cloudcroft also runs with the smallest enrollment and lowest student–teacher ratio (10.2) of the three nearby schools, versus 13.0 at Tularosa High and 14.9 at Alamogordo High, and the lowest share of students on free/reduced lunch (39.86%, down from 45.13% two years earlier).

Its 90.8% graduation rate for 2024–25 is roughly 10 points above the state and well above Alamogordo High's 81.0%, essentially level with Tularosa High's 91.4%. Eleventh graders reached 41.18% proficient in ELA and 38.24% in science, above state in both. Math is reported only as under 20%, a bound that also applies to the other two schools, so no firm comparison is possible. The school has a steady record with higher-need students: 4th of 58 for special education students (2021–22) and 13th of 127 for low-income students (2023–24). With an 11th-grade class of roughly 34 students, a handful of students moves any percentage by several points, so year-to-year swings deserve caution. The open questions are whether the 2025–26 ranking drop is durable and what the math results actually are.