Summary:
ZIP code 89460 (Gardnerville, Nevada) is served by exactly one middle school, Pau Wa Lu Middle School, which enrolls about 460 students in grades 6 through 8. It belongs to the Douglas district, one of Nevada's stronger districts, ranked 3rd of 12 statewide. Since this is the only middle school in the area, the most useful comparisons are against district and state averages rather than against other nearby schools.
Pau Wa Lu's clearest strength is science. Its all-grades science proficiency of 36.9% is well above the district (27.1%) and the state (25.5%), and science rose from 32.1% to 36.9% in a single year while both the district and state declined. Attendance is also a bright spot: chronic absenteeism of 17.2% is lower than the district (19.2%) and far lower than Nevada's 25.5%. Math is trending up as well, improving from 22.4% to 25.3%. The school is also climbing in the state rankings, moving from 103rd to 91st of 148 middle schools over three years.
The main concern is reading. At 31.8%, reading proficiency trails the district (48.5%) and the state (45.2%) by double digits, and it fell 3.7 points year over year while district and state results stayed essentially flat. Math (25.3%) also lags both benchmarks, and that weakness is consistent across all three grade levels rather than concentrated in one class. The school holds 2 stars and sits in the 39th percentile statewide despite being in a 4-star district, with $15,754 in per-student spending and an 18.7:1 student-teacher ratio. Overall, science and attendance are the standout features, while literacy is the area that most needs attention.
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