The top reported proficiency rate is 27% in English language arts. The lowest is 19% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Moriarty Elementary
Moriarty Elementary sits in a small highway town roughly forty miles east of Albuquerque, where Interstate 40 and Historic Route 66 cross through the Estancia Valley. The town grew up around the railroad and later the interstate, and its economy still leans heavily on highway services: gas stations, restaurants, and vehicle repair shops lining the corridor that serves as Main Street. Residential neighborhoods sit back from the highway, and the community retains a farming and ranching identity. The Moriarty Municipal Airport anchors a locally distinctive glider and soaring scene, and each October the town hosts the Pinto Bean Fiesta at Crosley Park. It is an auto-oriented place, spread out and low-density, with limited pedestrian street life. Moriarty shares its school district with Edgewood to the west, even though the two towns sit in separate counties.
The school itself is a regular public elementary school serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, part of the Moriarty-Edgewood district. Enrollment is moderate for an elementary of this grade band. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with a smaller white population and very small representation from other racial or ethnic groups. Every student in the building qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which marks this as a school serving a high-poverty community. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not reported, so those population sizes are not available here.
On the most recent New Mexico state assessments, proficiency rates were low across all three tested subjects. English language arts had the strongest result of the three, with roughly a quarter of tested students reaching proficiency. Math was lower, and science lower still. These are the only results available, covering a single school year, so there is no trend to compare against. Average scale scores and participation rates were not reported. A parent trying to understand whether performance is improving, holding steady, or declining would not find that answer in the available data. What the numbers do show is a school where most tested students are not yet meeting grade-level benchmarks, which is consistent with the high-poverty population it serves but is still a finding a family would want to discuss directly with school leadership. This is the kind of result a parent may want to look into further, asking the school what its improvement priorities are and how it supports students working below proficiency.
Because Moriarty Elementary does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and that metric does not apply. The same is true for college- or career-readiness indicators that only surface at upper grade levels. Program offerings, course access, staffing ratios, discipline data, and attendance figures were not available in the data provided, so those pieces of the picture are missing here rather than assumed absent.
The housing market around the school is relatively affordable compared with both state and national benchmarks. Home values in the school's zip code sit well below the statewide typical and further below the national figure, with modest year-over-year appreciation. Rental data was not available. The price-to-income ratio sits above four, which suggests that even with lower-priced housing, ownership can still stretch local household budgets given current mortgage rates. No major new housing developments were identified in available sources, though commercial growth is spreading along nearby corridors and neighboring Edgewood's expansion is influencing the area.
The district-level search returned no specific parent-relevant changes such as recent referendums, curriculum overhauls, or property-tax shifts. That does not mean nothing is happening, only that nothing surfaced in the available research. A family considering this school would benefit from asking the district directly about current priorities and any recent initiatives.
What this school offers is a small-town, community-rooted elementary setting in an affordable housing market, serving a predominantly Hispanic, high-poverty student body. The academic results are a soft spot, plainly visible in the data, and the absence of trend information makes it harder to judge direction. Families drawn to Moriarty's rural character and lower cost of living will want to weigh that against the academic picture and have a direct conversation with the school about how it is working to move students toward proficiency.
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