No metro map yet; start with the biggest places.
241 schools on file.
58 schools on file.
52 schools on file.
New Mexico's public school system spans 864 ranked schools across one of the country's largest states by land area. The network breaks into 468 elementary schools, 155 middle schools, and 193 high schools — giving parents options at every grade band, with the deepest pool at the elementary level.
The statewide average score is 6.3 out of 10. Within that, 301 schools — 35% of the ranked total — score 7 or higher, meaning roughly one in three public schools clears a solid performance threshold. High-performing schools are spread across the state rather than concentrated in one region, so a parent's address shapes their realistic options more than raw school counts might suggest.
The highest-rated schools in New Mexico come from smaller, rural communities. Estancia Municipal Schools earns two of the top five statewide — Lower Elementary scores 9.7, the strongest mark in the state, and Upper Elementary scores 9.4. Cimarron Middle School in Cimarron scores 9.5, placing among the top-performing middle schools statewide. Cliff Elementary matches that 9.5, and Seboyeta Elementary in Grants rounds out the top five at 9.4. These results show that small-town districts can — and routinely do — outperform larger urban systems on measured outcomes.
Albuquerque and Santa Fe carry the state's largest enrollment concentrations. Albuquerque Public Schools is the state's largest district, and score variation across its campuses is wide — standout schools exist within it, but quality is uneven at the neighborhood level. Santa Fe Public Schools offers a smaller urban footprint with its own range of outcomes. Families in either metro have more school-choice infrastructure than rural counterparts, but should search by individual school scores rather than lean on district name as a proxy for quality.
Three signals stand out for parents doing research. The 6.3 statewide average is the most useful first filter — any school above that baseline already outperforms the state norm. The 35% of schools scoring 7 or higher gives families real targets, even in areas with limited options. And the top five list shows that some of the state's strongest performers sit in districts most parents wouldn't search first. At the elementary level especially — 468 ranked schools, the state's largest segment — widening a search beyond major metros raises the odds of finding a high-performing school that fits.
Browse all 168 cities in New Mexico
Enrollment-weighted average across 133 schools. Source: NCES Common Core of Data (CCD).
Averages across 187 ZIP codes (ACS 2022)
MySchoolScout has rankings and data for 1,040 public schools across 194 districts in New Mexico.
The average MySchoolScout composite score for ranked schools in New Mexico is 6.2 out of 10.
On average, 29.4% of students across ranked schools in New Mexico are proficient in math, based on the most recent state assessment data.
On average, 39.4% of students across ranked schools in New Mexico are proficient in reading and ELA, based on the most recent state assessment data.
The average student-teacher ratio across ranked schools in New Mexico is 14.2:1.
The top-ranked school in New Mexico on MySchoolScout is Corona Elementary in Corona, with a composite score of 9.9/10.
MySchoolScout rates schools using publicly available data from the NCES Common Core of Data and the New Mexico Department of Education. Each school receives a 1-10 composite score built from Student Growth, Poverty-Adjusted Academic Achievement, and School Environment — plus College Readiness for high schools. Weights vary by school level, and equity data is shown for context but not scored.
Data insights
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Data from NCES Common Core of Data, New Mexico Dept. of Education, and U.S. Census ACS for the 2023–24 school year. Rankings computed by MySchoolScout. See all data sources.