Summary:
ZIP code 88316 covers the village of Capitan in Lincoln County, New Mexico, where all students attend the three schools of Capitan Municipal Schools: Capitan Elementary (PK–5), Capitan Middle (6–8), and Capitan High (9–12), together enrolling 443 students.
Capitan Elementary is the clear standout, holding 4 stars in each of the last three years and ranking 69th of 346 elementary schools statewide, in the top 20%. Its ELA proficiency (60.44%) and math proficiency (43.96%) run roughly 16–18 points above state averages; fourth-grade ELA reaches 75% and fourth-grade math 54.17%, about double the state. Capitan High graduates 90.4% of its students, nearly 10 points above the state, and its science proficiency beats the state at every grade tested — 5th, 8th, and 11th. Capitan Middle performs closest to state averages in ELA and math, slightly below the state in both.
The district's weakest area is math in grades 6–12: high school math is reported only as under 20%, against a state figure of 25.54%, and 8th-grade math is also under 20%, below the state's 20.29%. Rank trends diverge — Elementary has held steady at 4 stars, while Middle fell from the 83rd to the 53rd percentile and High from the 87th to the 56th since 2023–24, both slipping to 3 stars. Science remains a consistent bright spot at all three levels. Free and reduced-price lunch rates are similar across the schools (33.33%, 30.39%, and 28.36%), so economics alone does not explain why the elementary outperforms. Because grade cohorts are small — often 20 to 30 students — a single year's swing can be driven by a handful of students, so the three-year trend is the more reliable signal.
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