The top reported proficiency rate is 52% in English language arts. The lowest is 44% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Cliff Elementary
Cliff Elementary is a small, rural public school serving pre-kindergarten through sixth grade in the unincorporated community of Cliff, New Mexico. It operates as part of Silver Consolidated Schools, a district whose main office sits in Silver City roughly thirty miles southeast. The campus lies along State Highway 211, sharing a civic cluster with Cliff High School and the Grant County Fairgrounds. For a family considering this school, the setting is deeply rural, agricultural, and tight-knit, with ranches and farms defining the landscape rather than commercial development or suburban sprawl.
The school's enrollment is small, with only a handful of students per grade level. This naturally means small class sizes and a setting where teachers likely know every child by name. The student body is predominantly white, with a smaller Hispanic presence and minimal representation from other racial or ethnic groups. The share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch is modest, well below what many rural New Mexico schools report, which suggests a community where economic hardship is present but not pervasive. Data on individualized education programs and English learner status was not available, so families whose children need those services should ask the school directly about what is in place.
On state assessments for the most recent school year, Cliff Elementary posted middling results. In English language arts, roughly half of tested students reached proficiency. Math was close behind, with just under half proficient. Science, tested only in certain grades with a very small number of students, came in lower, with fewer than half demonstrating proficiency. Because the tested groups are so small, a few individual students moving in or out of the proficiency band can shift the picture considerably from year to year, and a single year of data does not establish a trend. The state did not report participation rates or average scale scores for this school, so those dimensions of academic performance remain unclear. No prior-year comparison points were available, which means we cannot say whether these results represent improvement, decline, or stability. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, asking how the staff supports students who are not yet proficient and what growth looks like for individual children over time.
Cliff itself is a quiet, spread-out place with no walkable downtown or commercial center. The nearest notable amenity is a local deli and bakery. The community anchors are civic and natural rather than retail: the fairgrounds, the post office, Bill Evans Lake, and the Gila Riparian Preserve. Public transit does not appear to exist. Housing is overwhelmingly owner-occupied, and the median home value sits below both the state and national benchmarks, making ownership relatively accessible for families with moderate incomes. At the same time, the area is projected to experience slight population decline rather than growth, with no major new housing developments or commercial construction mentioned in any available source. Rent data was not available for this zip code.
We looked for recent district-level changes that would matter to parents, such as bond elections, curriculum shifts, budget moves, or property tax issues, but found no concrete evidence of parent-relevant changes within the recent window. The district brief came back empty on that front, so rather than guess we leave it aside. Program offerings, course access details, staffing ratios, attendance patterns, discipline data, and Title I status were also not available in the provided materials. Families wanting to understand the school's enrichment activities, extracurricular options, or teacher experience levels will need to go directly to the school or district for those answers.
What the available picture does convey is a small, community-rooted elementary school in an agricultural valley, serving a modestly sized but relatively stable student population, with academic results that are mixed and based on very small testing cohorts. It fits families drawn to rural life, small classes, and a quiet setting, and who are comfortable engaging directly with the school to fill in the gaps that public data does not cover.
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