Meadow Valley Middle School

Meadow Valley Middle School is a small public middle school in Panaca, NV, serving grades 7–8 with 77 students in the Lincoln County School District, and it is the only school within 20 miles. With so few students, a 10-point change can reflect just 4–6 students, so year-to-year swings are noisy. The school’s statewide standing has improved markedly: after six years at 2 stars, it has stayed at or above the 63rd percentile since 2021-22 and twice earned 4 stars. In 2025-26 it ranked 55th of 148 middle schools (63rd percentile, 3 stars).

Science is the standout. In 2025-26, 46.3% of students were proficient in science, versus 33.0% in the district and 25.5% statewide, and the school has beaten the state by roughly 12 to 27 points every year. Reading is also consistently above the state (52.9% vs. 45.2%), though a 2024-25 spike to 67.2% fell 14.3 points the next year. Math is the persistent soft spot: it trailed the district all four years shown and fell below the state the last two (2025-26: 30.8% school, 42.3% district, 36.2% state). Grade-level results are cleaner: 7th-grade math is 37% (district 34.7%, state 32%), while 8th-grade math is 26.8% (district 23.4%, state 27.9%) — the one like-for-like result trailing both. The grades also diverge in reading: 8th grade 58.5% vs. 7th grade 44.4%.

Chronic absenteeism is improving, but the district is pulling away: in 2025-26, 22.2% of students were chronically absent, better than the state’s 25.5% but above the district’s 15.1%, and the school has run 3.9 to 11.8 points above its own district every year since 2021-22. The student-teacher ratio improved to 11.8, and per-pupil spending fell to $12,596 in 2023-24 after peaking at $16,773 in 2021-22. One important gap: there is no current data on how different student groups are performing; the only subgroup breakdown is eight years old and predates the turnaround, so it is unknown whether gains have been broad-based. Overall, science is the engine, math is the binding constraint, and with only 77 students, multi-year trends matter more than any single year’s scores.