The reported proficiency rate for English language arts is 26%.
Original Research by School Decision on La Tierra Montessori School of the Arts and Sciences
La Tierra Montessori School of the Arts and Sciences is a charter school district in New Mexico that is no longer operating. Its single school, which served elementary and middle grades, is marked as closed. For any family evaluating this entity, the central fact is that the school has shut down and is not an active educational option.
The closure followed a formal charter revocation. Publicly reported records indicate that the New Mexico Public Education Commission voted in spring of 2023 to revoke the school's charter and charter contract, effective July of that year. The commission cited several grounds, including failure to conduct tribal consultation with Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, concerns about school safety, concerns about special education accommodations, and contract violations. The state Public Education Department subsequently suspended the school's finance board and took control of its public school funds, after the school failed to submit a budget for the upcoming year and its lease was expected to expire. An appeal of the revocation was upheld, with the reviewing body finding the decision was supported by substantial evidence.
The school served a small student body, described in public reporting as roughly ninety students across kindergarten through eighth grade. This small scale is consistent with the limited number of students whose state assessment results appear in the data for the final year of operation.
The academic performance data available covers the school year ending in 2023, which was its last year before closure. In English language arts, roughly a quarter of tested students in grades three through eight met or exceeded proficiency. In mathematics, proficiency was very low, with only a handful of tested students reaching the proficient threshold. Science results were suppressed due to the small number of students tested in that subject. Average scale scores were not reported. Participation rates were also missing from the available data. No multi-year trend information was available, so it is not possible to say whether these results represented a decline or were typical for the school over time.
Beyond assessment results, the data is sparse. Enrollment figures, demographic breakdowns, free-or-reduced-price lunch rates, and information about students receiving special education or English learner services were all missing from the available records. No community or economic context was provided, so there is no housing, locale, or neighborhood information to convey. No comparison fact-set was available to position this district against others in its county. Program offerings, staffing, discipline, attendance, and course access data were absent as well.
What the record does contain, beyond the academic snapshot, is a clear account of governance failure leading to closure. The revocation findings touched on areas that matter directly to families: safety, support for students with disabilities, and adherence to the school's stated educational philosophy. A parent reading this should understand that the school's shutdown was not a voluntary closure or a routine administrative transition. It was the result of a state-led process that found serious and sustained problems.
For families who had children enrolled or who were considering this school, the practical question is now about alternatives. Because this was the only school in the district, its closure means the district itself effectively ceased to provide educational services. Families would need to look to other public, charter, or private options in their area of New Mexico.
The academic results from the final year, while limited in what they can tell us given the small tested population, were weak in mathematics and below average in English language arts relative to typical state expectations. Science could not be reported. Whether these outcomes reflected the same operational difficulties that led to the charter revocation, or stemmed from other factors, the available data does not say. What is clear is that the school's final operating year produced low proficiency results alongside the governance and compliance failures that prompted the state to act.
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