Pahrump Valley High School

Pahrump Valley High School is a comprehensive 9–12 campus serving 1,333 students at 501 E Calvada Blvd in Pahrump, Nevada, part of the Nye County School District — and it is by far the largest secondary school in the Pahrump valley.

The clearest comparison is with Pathways High School, a 123-student school just 0.15 miles away. Pahrump Valley is roughly 11 times larger and graduates a much higher share of its students — 87.5% in 2024-25 versus 61.3% at Pathways, a 26.2-point gap. It also spends nearly double per student ($14,316 vs. $7,666 in 2023-24) and reports a student–teacher ratio of 23.8 versus 49.2. That ratio difference is not a like-for-like class-size comparison, though, since a 123-student school usually runs a different staffing model. One surprise: Pathways reports lower chronic absenteeism (16.4% vs. 35.5% in 2025-26), though attendance rates at very small schools can swing widely from year to year.

On academics, the picture is mixed. Pahrump Valley outperforms its own district on all 13 reported test measures, but trails the state on 12 of 13 — the exception being 10th-grade Science (25.9% proficient vs. 18.5% statewide). ACT English made a big jump, from 32.1% to 45.5% proficiency, while ACT Math sits around 14%, still behind the state's roughly 21–22%. Graduation rates have topped both district and state for all five years on record. Statewide, the school ranked in the 57th percentile in 2018-19, fell to the 19th by 2021-22, and has since held between the 24th and 33rd percentiles. Spending rose 53% over four years and classes got smaller, while attendance drifted back up in 2025-26 — so graduation success and test proficiency are not moving together.