Original Research by School Decision on Northern Arizona Vocational Institute of Technolog (78786)
The Northern Arizona Vocational Institute of Technology (NAVIT) is not a conventional school district. It is a joint technical education district that provides career and technical training to high school students from numerous partner high schools across Navajo County. Its campus locations are embedded within public high schools such as Snowflake High School, Show Low High School, Blue Ridge High School, and several others, as well as at Northland Pioneer College campuses and a Gila Community College site. This structure means that most NAVIT students enroll through their home high school, attend NAVIT courses for part of the day, and return to their home school for core academics and diploma requirements. The district itself serves grades six through twelve, but its enrollment is entirely concentrated in grades nine through twelve, with a small number of students—only a few dozen in total—reflecting the specialized nature of the program: most students remain counted by their home district, not by NAVIT.
Because NAVIT operates as a career and technical education cooperative, standard academic performance measures such as state assessment scores and a four-year graduation rate do not apply in the usual sense. No state testing data is reported for the district, which is typical given that students take those assessments through their home high schools. Similarly, there is no reported graduation rate—NAVIT itself does not issue diplomas. A parent exploring this pathway should expect that their student’s academic record and graduation credentials will come from their base high school, with NAVIT providing technical certifications and skills training.
The student body served directly by NAVIT is very small, with about the size of a single classroom spread over two grade levels. Among the students who are counted under the district, the composition is predominantly white, with a smaller share of American Indian or Alaska Native students and an even smaller share of Hispanic students. Data on economic disadvantage, special education, and English learner status was not available, so a parent may want to ask the district directly about those supports.
One notable metric that did appear in the data is chronic absenteeism. For the small enrollment that NAVIT directly reports, the chronic absenteeism rate is high compared with other districts in Navajo County. This figure should be interpreted with care—attendance tracking for a part-time CTE program may not follow the same rules as a regular high school, and students who are absent from their home school may also be marked absent from NAVIT. Still, a family considering this program may wish to ask how attendance is monitored and what supports exist for students who struggle with regular participation.
On the financial side, NAVIT spends substantially more per pupil than most other districts in the county, placing it in the upper range. This is consistent with the costs of maintaining specialized equipment, facilities, and instructor credentials for technical trades. The spending itself does not tell a parent whether the programs are a good fit, but it signals that the district invests heavily in its course offerings.
A search for recent district-level changes, such as curriculum overhauls, property tax measures, or leadership shifts, did not surface any parent-relevant developments. The district’s stable profile suggests that families should rely on direct conversations with NAVIT and their home high school to understand current course availability and scheduling logistics. The communities served by NAVIT span multiple towns across Navajo County, but detailed locale information was not available in the data, so a parent will want to confirm how transportation and scheduling work for the specific NAVIT site their child would attend.
For a student who is motivated to pursue a technical field—whether in health sciences, automotive technology, construction trades, or other areas—NAVIT offers a pathway that is not available in most standard high schools. The trade-off is that the student operates across two school systems, and the academic accountability picture for the program is largely invisible in the usual public metrics. A family considering this option should contact their home school’s counseling office and the NAVIT site directly to get concrete details on course sequences, certifications, and how the dual enrollment fits into a graduation plan.
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