Summary
Tularosa Middle is a small grades 7–8 school in Tularosa, New Mexico, in Otero County, serving 140 students as the sole middle-level campus of Tularosa Municipal Schools. In 2025–2026, it ranked 184th of 191 middle schools statewide (4th percentile, 0 stars), its lowest ten-year standing, after reaching 47th of 165 (72nd percentile, 4 stars) in 2023–2024. Its district ranks 69th of 87 statewide (21st percentile, 1 star).
Current results are last among five nearby schools in every subject. The school posted 23.67% ELA, 6.8% math, and 17.57% science, below state rates of 44.66%, 27.85%, and 34.33%. Chaparral Middle posted 43.98% ELA, 33.2% math, and 43.8% science; Mountain View Middle posted 34.4% ELA, 21.64% math, and 33.54% science; Holloman Middle posted 75% ELA, 65% math, and 64.44% science; and Cloudcroft Middle posted 67.03% ELA, 53.85% math, and 70.97% science. Its math proficiency is roughly one-fifth of the rate at Chaparral Middle and less than a third of the rate at Mountain View Middle. Grade-level math is bounded low: 6th grade under 10%, 7th under 20%, 8th under 10%, versus state rates of 32.13%, 27.1%, and 20.5%. ELA is uneven, with 7th grade at 32.76% as the one relative bright spot.
Poverty does not explain the gap. The school is at roughly 100% free/reduced lunch (100% in 2023–2024; 91.67% in 2022–2023; 2024–2025 suppressed), but the two 100%-free-lunch Alamogordo schools serve the same economic profile and substantially outperform it. The school also has the lowest student–teacher ratio of the five at 8.3, suggesting class size is not the binding constraint. The 2023–2024 spike looks like a cohort effect, not a sustained turnaround: low-income, male, and female students are now in the bottom fifth statewide. Female students fell from the 78th to the 3rd percentile (132 of 136), male from 64th to 13th, and low-income from 72nd to 9th. It is also below its own district aggregate at the all-grades level (ELA 37.09% vs. 23.67%; math 18.34% vs. 6.8%).
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