Melrose Elementary

Melrose Elementary is a small, rural PK–5 school in Melrose, New Mexico, serving about 120 students as part of Melrose Public Schools. It is the only school in its own district, and its nearest peer is Floyd Elementary, a PK–4 school with 92 students about 15.4 miles away in Floyd Municipal Schools. Statewide, Melrose Elementary ranks 87th of 346 New Mexico elementary schools (75th percentile, 4 stars) for 2025–2026 — a stronger showing than its own district's 31st-of-87 (64th percentile, 3 stars).

English language arts is the school's standout strength: 53.57% of tested students were proficient in 2025–2026, above the district's 45.97% and the state's 43.34%, and every tested grade level beat the state. Math is the counterweight, at 19.64% proficient — below both the district (23.39%) and the state (25.54%), and the only core subject where the school trails both. Both subjects have slipped since a 2023–2024 peak, with ELA falling from 69% to 53.57% and math from 41% to 19.64%; the school also moved from back-to-back 5-star years (91st and 92nd percentile) down to 4 stars. Floyd currently leads in math (27.27% vs 19.64%) while Melrose leads in ELA, so the two schools trade advantages by subject.

The school's strongest asset is how well it serves students from low-income families, ranking 14th of 356 (96th percentile, 5 stars) in 2023–2024 and 22nd of 325 (93rd percentile, 5 stars) in 2024–2025 among low-SES students, and 1st of 50 for military-connected students in 2021–2022. Class sizes have also become notably leaner, moving from a 14.2 student–teacher ratio in 2022–2023 to 7.9 in 2024–2025. One caution: science scores and every individual grade-level math figure were suppressed by the state, so the all-grades math number is the only math view available, and with roughly 120 students a handful of students can shift percentages noticeably.