The top reported proficiency rate is 31% in English language arts. The lowest is 10% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Memorial Middle
Memorial Middle sits on Fifth Street in Las Vegas, New Mexico, a small historic city in San Miguel County that most outsiders first encounter as a name on the Amtrak Southwest Chief route. The school serves seventh and eighth graders only, a narrow two-year band that makes it a transitional place by design. It is part of Las Vegas City Schools, the district covering the east side of town, which itself reflects one of the more unusual civic arrangements in the state. Las Vegas was originally two separate municipalities, Old Town laid out in Spanish Colonial style around a central plaza on the Santa Fe Trail, and New Town growing up a mile east around the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad depot. Though unified under one city charter long ago, the two sides retain separate school districts, and Memorial Middle belongs to the east-side system.
The school is small for its grade band, with an enrollment that fits comfortably into a two-grade configuration. Its student body is almost entirely Hispanic, with very small numbers of white, American Indian, and Asian students. A modest share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The data we received does not include English learner or special education counts, so those population details are absent from this picture.
On state assessments, the results are mixed and in one subject quite low. In English language arts, roughly three out of ten tested students reached proficiency, a middling result that suggests some students are reading and writing at grade level while many are not. Math is the clear soft spot. Fewer than one in ten tested students demonstrated proficiency, a rate well below what most families would want to see. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, asking how math instruction is structured and what interventions are available for students working below grade level. Science proficiency falls between the other two subjects, with about one in five tested students meeting the bar. Only a single year of assessment data was available, so there is no trend line to show whether these numbers are improving, holding, or slipping. Participation rates and average scale scores were not reported in the data we received.
Because Memorial Middle does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and no AP or career-pathway data to draw on. Course access, staffing, attendance, and discipline information were not available in the payload, so those dimensions of school life cannot be described here. Title I status was also not reported. What we can say is that this is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, operating as part of the traditional district structure.
The surrounding community shapes the experience of attending school here in ways parents should weigh. Las Vegas is a city of historic structures, with a large number of buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, many in varying states of deterioration and others restored. New Mexico Highlands University is woven into the city fabric and is a major institutional employer, along with San Miguel County government. The Carnegie Library, the only surviving Carnegie library in New Mexico, sits in Carnegie Park near Victorian homes. The city has been losing population over several census cycles, and the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire of April 2022, the largest wildfire in New Mexico's recorded history, burned through surrounding areas of San Miguel and Mora counties, an event whose aftermath still touches the region.
Housing in the school's zip code sits well below both state and national benchmarks for typical home values, making this one of the more affordable places to buy in New Mexico relative to income. Year-over-year home values have been appreciating at a healthy clip, so the market is active. Rental data was not available. The district brief turned up no parent-relevant changes such as curriculum shifts, bond measures, or reorganization efforts from recent reporting, so there is little to relay on that front.
What Memorial Middle offers is a small, community-rooted seventh- and eighth-grade experience in a historic, affordable, and economically modest northern New Mexico town. Its ELA results are passable, its science results are below middling, and its math results are low. Families considering this school would do well to ask directly about math support, staffing stability, and what the transition into high school looks like for students who finish eighth grade here.
See more original research from School Decision →