The reported proficiency rate for English language arts is 32%.
Original Research by School Decision on Excalibur Charter Schools Inc. (79214)
Excalibur Charter Schools Inc. serves kindergarten through eighth grade as a single-school district with one campus, Avalon Elementary, in Pinal County, Arizona. The district enrolls a student body that is roughly half white and about two-fifths Hispanic, with smaller shares of multiracial and Black students. Its enrollment is small for a district of this grade span, and the class sizes are relatively even from kindergarten through sixth grade before dropping noticeably in seventh and eighth grades. Free or reduced-price lunch data and special education and English learner counts were not available, so it is unclear what share of students come from lower-income households or receive specialized support.
On the most recent state assessments, English language arts proficiency rates for third, fourth, and sixth graders each fell in the range of about a quarter to a third of students meeting the bar. These figures place the district’s overall proficiency index above the midpoint among Pinal County’s districts, meaning a typical student here is somewhat more likely to be on grade level in reading than at a median county school. Math results were substantially lower, with proficiency rates just above one in ten students. This is a wide gap between math and reading that a parent may want to explore further with the school. Science results for fifth and eighth graders were suppressed due to small testing populations, which is common for smaller districts and does not necessarily indicate a weak performance but does mean there is no public data to review.
The district’s chronic absenteeism rate, which tracks students who miss a substantial portion of the school year, falls in the top quartile among Pinal County districts. This is a positive position compared to many peers. Per-pupil spending is in the middle range, landing in the upper half of the county, suggesting the district is not under-resourced relative to its neighbors, though it also does not outspend most of them.
Excalibur’s grade band, kindergarten through eighth grade, means there is no high school program and therefore no graduation rate to report. Families looking ahead to high school would need to plan for a transition to another district or school after eighth grade. The district’s boundaries cover an area in Pinal County, but a specific city or town was not listed, so the immediate locale context is unclear. The district’s own website and recent news coverage yielded little of lasting significance; the available information is limited to directory data and fiscal records.
For a family evaluating this district, the academic picture is mixed. Reading proficiency is around the middle of the pack for the county, which is a reasonable starting point. The math results, however, are notably low, and a family with a child who struggles in math or who excels in math may want to ask what interventions or acceleration options exist. The small enrollment in seventh and eighth grade could mean limited peer grouping and fewer elective or enrichment offerings in the upper middle grades. The school is small and operates as a charter organization, which may appeal to families seeking an alternative to larger traditional public school districts, but the lack of detailed program information makes it hard to assess what specific curricular approach or educational philosophy the school follows.
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