La Cueva High School is a public high school located in northeast Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States, within the Albuquerque Public Schools District. Its mascot is the Bears. The La Cueva feeder schools include Desert Ridge, Madison, and Eisenhower middle schools; and Dennis Chavez, Double Eagle, E. G. Ross, Hubert Humphrey, and North Star elementary schools. La Cueva opened in 1986 with 1200 students.[2]
School Grade
The NMPED (New Mexico Public Education department) replaced the No Child Left Behind Act and AYP testing with a new school grading formula, which took effect for the 2010–11 school year. The grade is calculated using many forms of testing and includes graduation rates.[3]
School year
Grade from NMPED
2010–11
A
Academics
Pat Graff, an English and Journalism teacher, was selected as New Mexico Teacher of the Year and was awarded the Milken Educator Award in 1993. Graff was also named the National Journalism Teacher of the Year (1995) and Disney National English Teacher of the Year (1998), and she was honored with the National Distinguished Service Award by the National Council of Teachers of English (2001). In 2006, she was inducted to the National Teacher Hall of Fame. Graff is now retired.[4]
Frances Gruette, a teacher of AP Calculus AB, was awarded one of the Siemens Awards for Advanced Placement.[5]
In 2018, La Cueva was named as a Top 100 Best Public High School in the U.S. by TheBestSchools.org[6]
LCHS competes in 18 NMAA sport-activity events.[citation needed]
Former Bears include Olympians Lance Ringnald (88) and Nate DiPalma (93). Collegiate All-Americans include Amy Warner (01), Kristen Graczyk (02), Jamie MacArthur (04), Randy Wells (07), Richie Hansen (95), Jennifer Hommert (95), Anna Tuttle (95), Doug Zembiec (91), Jeff Rowland (02), Lauren Goldfarb (09). AJ Bramlett (basketball) (95) played on the University of Arizona's national championship team and Nick Speegle (2000) was drafted and plays football for the Cleveland Browns. Sports Illustrated ranked the Bears as the 24th best overall sports high school in the country.[citation needed]
Notable alumni
Bryce Alford (class of 2013), professional basketball player[7]