Original Research by School Decision on Cochise Elementary District (4177)
Cochise Elementary District is a single-school, rural district in southeastern Arizona serving kindergarten through eighth grade. Because it does not serve high school, there is no graduation rate to report. The district is small by any measure, and the student body spans all elementary and middle school grades within one campus.
The student population is predominantly white, with a substantial share of Hispanic students. The district does not report the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, nor does it provide counts for students with individualized education programs or English learners, so a parent cannot determine from available data the level of economic need or special education support in the building. The school itself, Cochise Elementary School, is listed as the district's only school.
On state assessments in the most recent year, nearly all grade-level results for math, English language arts, and science were suppressed, meaning the tested group was too small to report publicly. For eighth grade math and eighth grade ELA, the state reported that eleven students were tested in each subject, but the proficiency results were suppressed. Because these data are not available for nearly every grade and subject, there is not enough information to assess academic performance at this district through state testing. The multi-year trend data provided a single point for all-district proficiency rates, showing that across all tested grades, roughly half of students scored proficient or above in ELA and about a third did so in math, but those figures come from a time span that is too narrow to establish a pattern. A parent should consider reaching out to the school directly to understand student outcomes.
On chronic absenteeism, the district sits below the midpoint among Cochise County's districts, with a rate that is higher than typical for the county. That is a soft spot worth asking about: a parent may want to learn what the school is doing to support consistent attendance.
Where the district stands out is spending. Per-pupil current spending lands in the upper half of the middle range among county districts, well above the county median. For a very small rural district, this suggests that resources per student are relatively robust compared to neighboring systems. That spending likely has to cover the fixed costs of running a standalone school with few students to spread them across.
Housing in the areas served by the district, which includes parts of Pearce and Willcox, is modestly priced compared to the state average. Home values in the district's coverage area are, on a weighted basis, well below the Arizona statewide typical home value. The national affordability metric suggests that a typical mortgage on a median-priced home here would run less than the national mortgage benchmark, though these are rough estimates. For a family looking at rural Cochise County, the cost of housing is not a barrier in the way it is in many parts of the state.
The district brief turned up no evidence of recent referendums, curriculum changes, property tax shifts, or other lasting parent-relevant developments. This is a very small district that appears to operate without major public controversy or announced shifts. For a family seeking a rural, small-school setting where the district is the school and the school is the district, Cochise Elementary offers that straightforward arrangement. But the lack of academic data, the high chronic absenteeism rate, and the absence of key demographic figures mean a parent has limited information to evaluate the educational experience before contacting the school directly.
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