The top reported proficiency rate is 36% in English language arts. The lowest is 14% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Zuni
Zuni Public Schools is a single district serving the Zuni community in western New Mexico, encompassing four schools that together cover prekindergarten through twelfth grade. The district includes Shiwi Ts'ana Elementary, Zuni Middle, Zuni High, and Twin Buttes Cyber Academy. The student body is predominantly American Indian and Alaska Native, with a sizable Hispanic enrollment and very small numbers of students from other racial and ethnic backgrounds. This is a district deeply rooted in and shaped by its Zuni community, and the academic program reflects that identity in direct ways.
The district recently went through a restructuring, publicly reported through the New Mexico Public Education Department's Tribal Education Status Report. That restructuring brought changes to instruction, new initiatives focused on improving attendance and graduation rates, and a more structured approach to parent and community involvement aimed at supporting student academic success. Families considering the district should understand that this is a system in an active period of change, working deliberately on fundamentals like getting students to school consistently and across the finish line to graduation.
One of the clearest strengths in the district's program is its redesigned Bilingual Multicultural Program. Zuni language instruction is now provided to all students at the elementary and middle school levels. At the high school, Zuni Language I and II are offered as electives, and students can work toward the State Seal of Bilingualism and Bi-Literacy. For families who want their children to maintain or deepen a connection to Zuni language and culture through the school day, this is a concrete, built-in pathway rather than an extracurricular add-on.
On state assessments for the most recent reported year, the district's results show a mixed picture. In English language arts, roughly a third of tested students in grades three through eight reached proficiency, which is the stronger of the reported subjects. In math and science, a much smaller share of students demonstrated proficiency. These are the kind of results a parent may want to look into further with the school, asking what the restructuring and new instructional changes are doing to address them. The district does not have multi-year trend data available, so it is not possible from the provided data to say whether proficiency is moving in a particular direction. State testing was limited to grades three through eight, and the results reflect only that band.
Several pieces of information that would help a parent round out the picture were not available in the data provided. There is no free or reduced-price lunch information, so the economic profile of the student body cannot be characterized from the data. There is no information on special education enrollment or English learner counts. No graduation rate was reported in the available data. No locale brief or community and economic context was provided, so details about housing, local economy, or the surrounding area are not included here. No school environment data on discipline, course access, staffing, or attendance was available beyond the district brief's general mention of attendance initiatives. No program offerings beyond the bilingual program were listed. No neighbor comparison set was provided, so the district cannot be positioned against nearby districts.
What the data does show is a small, community-centered district serving a largely Indigenous student population, with a distinctive commitment to Zuni language instruction across grade levels and an ongoing restructuring effort focused on the basics of attendance, graduation, and family engagement. The academic results are modest in the tested grades, and the district appears to be working through a period of intentional change to address that. A parent reading this would want to ask the schools directly how the restructuring is progressing, what supports are in place for students performing below proficiency, and how the bilingual program connects to the broader academic plan.
See more original research from School Decision →