Jemez Valley Middle

Jemez Valley Middle is a small public middle school serving grades 6 through 8 with 69 students in Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico, part of Jemez Valley Public Schools and the only school of any kind within 20 miles. Every student is economically disadvantaged — the free/reduced-lunch rate has been 100% in each of the last three reported years — and with roughly 20 to 25 students per grade, one student can shift a percentage by several points. In 2025–2026 the school ranked 140th of 191 New Mexico middle schools (27th percentile, 1 star), its best result since 2015–16 and the third straight year of improvement, from the 14th to the 15th to the 27th percentile.

Results are uneven by subject. Eighth-grade science sits right at the state average (34.62%, against 34.19% and 34.33% on the state's two science exams) — the one place this school matches New Mexico as a whole. English language arts trails the state by about 13 to 14 points in both tested grades (7th: 33.33% vs. 46.63%; 8th: 30.77% vs. 43.61%), and math is the sharpest weakness: every grade-level math score is suppressed by the state, and the all-grades figure is under 10% against 25.54% statewide. That math problem is not unique to this school — the district's own all-grades math result is 8.96%.

The most encouraging finding is that the school's low-income students rank in the 65th percentile statewide with 3 stars, up from the 18th percentile in 2022–23. Because 100% of students are economically disadvantaged, this is effectively a whole-school measure, and it suggests students here are doing better than comparable students elsewhere. One trend to watch: the student–teacher ratio has more than doubled in two years, from 9.4 to 19.7. Data is also incomplete — a six-year reporting gap, a missing 2024–25 rank, and suppressed scores mean year-to-year swings should not be over-read.