The top reported proficiency rate is 47% in Science. The lowest is 18% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Explore Academy Las Cruces
Explore Academy Las Cruces is a single-school charter district in New Mexico serving grades four through ten, though its current enrollment is concentrated in the middle grades, with smaller cohorts in the early high school years. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with a sizable white population and small representations from other racial and ethnic backgrounds. The school is small for its grade span, which means class cohorts are intimate and the environment is likely to feel familiar to families and staff alike. The data does not tell us the free-or-reduced-price lunch rate, the percentage of students with individualized education programs, or the share of English learners, so a parent evaluating fit for those supports would want to ask the school directly.
On state assessments from the most recent school year, the picture is mixed. English language arts proficiency sits at a moderate level, and science results are stronger, with nearly half of tested students reaching proficiency. Mathematics is the clear soft spot, with proficiency well below what the state expects. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, particularly given that the New Mexico Public Education Department's Charter Schools Division has publicly reported a preliminary recommendation to renew the school's charter for a five-year term, conditioned specifically on improving math proficiency. That renewal recommendation gives families some certainty about the school's continued operation, but the math condition is a real, stated expectation from the authorizer.
The school's short history has been turbulent. Publicly reported records from the New Mexico Public Education Department indicate that Explore Academy opened in the 2021-22 school year with grades six through eight, then added a grade each subsequent year, reaching its largest expansion in 2024-25 when it served kindergarten through eleventh grade and opened a second campus. At the end of that same year, the governing board voted to close the second campus and reduce grades served back through eighth. Families who had enrolled in the expanded high school grades or at the second campus were displaced. The current profile shows grades four through ten, so the full contraction may still be working its way through the system. This is a school that has grown fast and then pulled back, and a parent considering enrollment should ask how the remaining grade configuration will stabilize and what that means for continuity, especially for students approaching the upper grades.
Several things a parent might want to know are simply not in the available data. There is no locale brief for Las Cruces in the provided material, so we cannot describe the community context, housing market, or commuting patterns here. No information on course access, staffing ratios, discipline, attendance, or Title I status was available. There are no multi-year academic trend data, so we cannot say whether proficiency is improving or declining over time. Average scale scores and participation rates were not reported. No graduation rate applies, because the school does not serve through twelfth grade. No programs data, civil-rights data, or neighbor comparison was provided. We mention these gaps plainly rather than guess at what they might contain.
What the evidence does support is a characterization of a small, majority-Hispanic charter school with moderate reading results, a relative strength in science, and a mathematics shortfall that its own authorizer has flagged as a condition for renewal. Its recent growth and contraction are the defining context. Families drawn to a small-school setting in the Las Cruces area may find value here, but the instability of the past few years and the math proficiency concern are real factors to weigh.
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