The top reported proficiency rate is 84% in Math. The lowest is 79% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Des Moines
Des Moines is a very small public school district in northeastern New Mexico, serving students from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade across two schools, Des Moines Elementary and Des Moines High. The district sits in Union County, with housing data tied to the Raton and Clayton areas. This is a rural community where the total enrollment across all grades is small enough that every cohort is intimate, and the district's character flows directly from that scale.
The academic results here are striking. On the most recent New Mexico state assessments, proficiency rates in math, English language arts, and science for the tested elementary and middle grades were all very high, well above what most districts in the state post. Math and English language arts proficiency sat at levels that would catch any parent's attention, and science was strong as well, though based on a very small number of tested students. These results come from a single grade-band snapshot, and the state did not provide multi-year trend data, so it is hard to say whether this level of performance is sustained over time or reflects a particularly strong cohort. What the current data does show is a district where a large majority of tested students are meeting or exceeding grade-level expectations across all three subjects. That is a genuine strength, especially in a small rural district where resources and specialized staffing can be limited.
The student body is predominantly white, with a substantial Hispanic presence and a very small number of Black students. The district did not report free-or-reduced-price lunch data, special education enrollment, or English learner figures, so there is no picture here of the economic needs or special populations the district serves. A parent wanting to understand how the district supports students facing poverty or learning challenges would need to ask the school directly, because the publicly reported data does not speak to it.
Housing in the area is affordable by any standard. Home values across the district's zip codes sit well below both the New Mexico state benchmark and the national one, and the price-to-income ratio suggests that a family earning a typical income could manage a mortgage here without the stretch that defines many housing markets. Raton appears to be the larger contributor to the district's housing picture, with values there modestly rising, while the Clayton area saw a sharper decline. No rent data was available. The economic context is stable, with national unemployment and mortgage rate data providing the backdrop, but nothing in the district's own data speaks to local employment conditions or community development.
The district brief turned up little in the way of recent changes or initiatives that would shift a parent's calculus. That search came back empty, which means there is no publicly reported information about new programs, leadership transitions, facility projects, or strategic priorities to relay. It does not mean nothing is happening; it means the available record is thin.
What is also missing is any neighbor comparison, graduation rate data, civil-rights reporting, course access information, staffing details, or program offerings. Some of these gaps reflect the district's size and grade configuration, and some reflect what the state and federal sources simply did not provide. A school district this small may not generate the volume of reported data that larger systems do, so a parent should treat the absence of these fields as a gap in the record rather than a signal about quality.
What the data does say, clearly, is that Des Moines is a tiny rural district where state test results are strong across the board, housing is inexpensive, and the school community is small enough that families will know one another. For a parent drawn to that kind of setting, the academic signal here is a genuine positive. The open questions are about everything the data does not cover: support services, program breadth, graduation outcomes, and what happens for students as they move through the upper grades.
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