Gccs Early College High School

Gccs Early College High School is a small public high school in Grants, New Mexico, serving grades 9–12 with about 50 students in the Grants-Cibola County Schools district. Even though the district is ranked 64th of 87 in New Mexico (26th percentile, 1 star), GCCS has a much stronger school-level profile: it ranked 25th of 132 New Mexico high schools in 2025–2026 (81st percentile, 4 stars). The nearby same-district Grants High, only 0.55 miles away and much larger with 807 students, ranked 108th of 132 (18th percentile, 1 star). That is about a 63-percentage-point gap, making GCCS look like a high-performing outlier inside a lower-ranked district.

In the available academic data, GCCS’s clearest strength is 11th-grade English language arts and science. It reports 58.33% proficiency on multiple measures, compared with roughly 23–26% at Grants High, about 26% in the district, and about 34–37% statewide. Mathematics is suppressed for GCCS, so math performance is unknown and should not be read as zero or as a weakness. Grants High’s math results are reported only as under 5% in several exams, which are bounds rather than exact figures. GCCS also had a 7:1 student-teacher ratio in 2024–2025, down sharply from 15.1:1 the prior year, while Grants High was 12.1:1. Economic need is high at both schools; GCCS reports 100% free/reduced lunch in 2024–2025.

Graduation data are limited but favorable where available. GCCS’s only provided school-level rate is 76.7% for 2022–2023, matching the state and exceeding the district’s 70.5% by 6.2 points; later GCCS school-level rates are not provided. Grants High’s 2024–2025 rate was 77.0%, below its district (80.1%) and the state (80.6%). In 2021–2022, GCCS’s subgroup effectiveness ranks were especially strong for English Language Learner students (1st of 29) and low socioeconomic status students (16th of 154), though the male-student rank was lower (120th of 159, 25th percentile, 1 star). These subgroup ranks are historical. Overall, GCCS is a very small, high-ranked school with strong ELA/science results, strong subgroup effectiveness in those areas, and a very low student-teacher ratio; the biggest gaps are math and recent graduation outcomes.