The reported proficiency rate for English language arts is 16%.
Original Research by School Decision on San Diego Riverside
San Diego Riverside is a charter school serving kindergarten through eighth grade in Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico, within the Jemez Valley Public Schools district. It is a small school by any measure, with a tight-knit enrollment spread across those nine grade levels. The student body is predominantly Native American, with a smaller Hispanic presence and a tiny fraction of students identifying as two or more races. Every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch. These are plain characteristics of the school, not judgments. The charter model gives families a choice within the broader district, and the small scale means students are likely known individually by staff and peers alike.
Jemez Pueblo, also called Walatowa, is a federally recognized Native American pueblo and census-designated place in Sandoval County. Publicly reported sources describe it as a rural, residential, community-centered village situated along State Road 4 in the southern end of the Cañon de Don Diego, roughly fifty-five miles northwest of Albuquerque. The built environment consists of puebloan village structures near the Red Rocks formation, with the Jemez River running through the area. The setting is remote, nestled below mountains with juniper, cottonwood, and aspen. Local employers include tribal enterprises such as the Walatowa Timber Industry, a gas and convenience store, a visitor center, and a health clinic, along with tribal administration. The pueblo sits along the Jemez Mountain Trail National Scenic Byway, and the nearby Jemez State Monument at Guisewa is a cultural landmark. Available sources did not describe public parks, a library, or formal transit services, and no growth or development plans were found.
On state assessments from the most recent reported year, the school's results are low. In English language arts, proficiency fell well below state norms, with only a small share of tested students meeting the proficiency bar. In math, the reported proficiency rate sat in the lowest range the state publishes, with no students reaching proficiency among those tested. Science results were suppressed, so no proficiency figure is available there. Participation rate data was not reported, and average scale scores were missing from the source. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say from this data whether these results represent a stable pattern or a recent shift. A parent concerned about these numbers may want to look into this further with the school, asking about instruction, support services, and what improvement efforts are underway.
Several data gaps reflect what the school does and does not offer. Because San Diego Riverside serves only through eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to report. The school does not have high school grades, so metrics like AP access, dual-credit pathways, or career and technical education do not apply here. Information on programs, staffing, discipline, attendance, and civil-rights indicators was not available in the provided data, so those areas go unnamed rather than guessed. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners was also missing.
The housing context in the surrounding area shows home values above the state benchmark but modestly below the national figure, with recent year-over-year appreciation. The price-to-income ratio sits above what is typically considered affordable, and estimated monthly mortgage costs under current rates exceed estimated rent costs, suggesting renting may be comparatively less burdensome than buying for local families. No rent index data was available for the immediate area.
San Diego Riverside fits a family looking for a small, community-rooted charter option on pueblo land, where the student body is overwhelmingly Native American and the setting is rural and remote. The academic results, as reported, are a soft spot a parent should engage with directly. The school's small scale and cultural grounding may be genuine assets, and the assessment data is the part that warrants the most careful conversation with school leadership.
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