The top reported proficiency rate is 62% in English language arts. The lowest is 43% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Sw Aeronautics Mathematics and Science Academy
SWAeronautics Mathematics and Science Academy sits on Aerospace Parkway in Albuquerque's southeast quadrant, a part of the city shaped by aviation and federal installations. The school is a charter serving grades six through twelve, operating as its own district under New Mexico's charter framework. Its location near the Sunport and Kirtland Air Force Base places it in a corridor where aerospace, defense, and technology employment concentrate. The surrounding zip code's housing sits below both state and national benchmarks, with rents that have drifted slightly downward while home values hold roughly flat. For a family weighing where to live while attending this school, the area offers relatively accessible housing compared with much of the Albuquerque metro.
The school recently went through a rebranding. In mid-2023, the New Mexico Public Education Commission approved a mission change from Southwest Aeronautics, Mathematics, and Science Academy to Albuquerque Aviation Academy, shifting from a STEM to a STEAM framing by adding arts and referencing a hybrid learning experience. The prior mission language about serving high-risk students was removed. Publicly reported analysis from the Charter Schools Division noted that the core educational program remained unchanged, but the revised identity signals a direction parents evaluating the charter would want to understand.
Academically, the school's state assessment results from the most recent year tell a split story. English language arts proficiency is strong, with well over half of tested students in grades three through eight reaching proficiency. Science performance is similarly solid, again with a clear majority proficient. Math is the softer area, with fewer than half of tested students reaching proficiency. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, particularly how math instruction is structured across the middle school grades and what supports exist for students who arrive below grade level. No multi-year trend data is available, so there is no way to read whether these results are improving, stable, or declining over time.
The student body is modest in size for a school spanning seven grade levels, with roughly even distribution across grades. Hispanic students make up about half the enrollment, and white students form a substantial share as well. The school reports a small number of American Indian, Asian, and Black students, along with a small multiracial group. The free-or-reduced-price lunch rate is low relative to many New Mexico schools, which tells you something about the peer environment: this is not a school serving a predominantly economically disadvantaged population. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not reported, so there is no clear picture of how the school serves those populations.
Several categories of information that would help a parent compare this school were absent from the available data. No graduation rate was reported, though the school does serve high school grades, so this is a gap worth noting. No course access data was available, meaning there is no visible record of Advanced Placement, dual credit, or career and technical course offerings, which matters for families looking at the upper grades. No discipline, attendance, or staffing data was provided. No neighbor comparison set was available to position this school against nearby charters or district schools in Bernalillo County.
What the data does show is a small, themed charter school with a STEM-to-STEAM aviation identity, solid reading and science results, a math proficiency level that lags behind its own other subjects, and a student population that is socioeconomically narrower than the state average. For a family drawn to the aviation and aerospace focus and comfortable with a smaller school environment, the academic strengths in literacy and science are real. The math results and the missing upper-grade outcome data are the areas where questions are most worth asking.
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