Summary:
ZIP code 88021 is home to four high schools, all part of Gadsden Independent Schools, which is ranked 54 of 87 districts in New Mexico (38th percentile, 2 stars). Gadsden High (1,219 students) and Chaparral High (1,067) are the two large comprehensive campuses serving grades 9–12, joined at those grades by the much smaller Alta Vista Early College High School (180). Desert Pride Academy (221) serves grades 7–12, so it is not a perfect comparison. Combined enrollment is 2,687, all four schools report 100% free/reduced lunch, and student-teacher ratios run from 10.0 to 15.3.
Alta Vista Early College High School is the clear standout, ranking 9th of 132 high schools statewide in 2025–26 (93rd percentile, 5 stars), after 21/131 in 2024–25 and 10/172 in 2023–24. Its 11th-grade math proficiency is 56.41%, more than four times the state rate of 12.72% and more than five times the district rate of 10.06%, while its language arts proficiency of 71.79% is nearly double the state's 36.78%. It has the smallest enrollment and the lowest student-teacher ratio (10.0) in the group. With only 180 students, year-to-year swings can be large — its SAT math moved from 24.39% to 56.41% — and it has no 2024–25 school-level graduation rate listed, though its 2023–24 rate was 100.0%.
The other three schools tell a different story. Gadsden High and Chaparral High graduate students at high rates — 89.8% and 89.5%, above the state's 80.6% but just below the district's 90.9% — yet their math proficiency sits in the single digits (7.77% and 8.44%), and both rank in the lower range with 1 star (101/132 and 115/132). Chaparral's science proficiency of 18.72% is a particular weak point. Desert Pride Academy ranks lowest (131/131 in 2024–25, 0 stars), with a 75.0% graduation rate and several test results reported only as bounds such as under 20% or not listed, so comparisons there should be made with caution. Notably, 100% free/reduced lunch at every school means that measure does not distinguish outcomes here.
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