Summary:
ZIP code 87122 contains exactly one middle school: Desert Ridge Middle, a grades 6–8 school at 8400 Barstow NE with 801 students, operating within Albuquerque Public Schools. It is one of the strongest middle schools in New Mexico — 12th out of 191 middle schools statewide in 2025‑26, a 94th-percentile, 5-star result — and it has never dropped below 5 stars across three reported years (5th of 165 in 2023‑24, 14th of 192 in 2024‑25).
Test scores sit far above both district and state averages. In 2025‑26, 68% of students were proficient in language arts and 61% in math, against roughly 44% and 26% for the district and the state. Eighth-grade science reached 63%, compared with about 34% at both district and state level. Math is the standout: at every grade level the school's proficiency is roughly double the state's, and the gap between its reading and math results is only about 7 points, versus roughly 18 points for the district and the state. Year over year, math rose 2.6 points, language arts held essentially flat, and science fell 3.2 points — the only measure moving in the wrong direction, though it remains nearly 29 points above the state.
Two things are worth keeping in mind. First, this school's results are not a reflection of its district: the district ranks 55th of 87 statewide (37th percentile, 2 stars) and its math proficiency is nearly identical to the state's, so the school is performing well above its own district's level. Second, the school reports a 99.13% free/reduced-lunch rate, which is unusual for this ZIP code. The data provides only a single year of that figure and no demographic breakdown, so it should not be treated as a verified picture of the student population. The student–teacher ratio is 12.6.
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