The reported proficiency rate for English language arts is 53%.
Original Research by School Decision on Pearce Elementary District (4186)
Pearce Elementary District serves students from preschool through eighth grade in a rural stretch of Cochise County. The district runs a single school, Pearce Elementary School, and its enrollment of just over one hundred students makes it one of the smaller elementary districts in the county. The student body is mixed: roughly half of students are Hispanic, a substantial share are white, and there are small numbers of Black students and students who identify as two or more races. Data on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch was not available for this profile. The district does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report.
State assessment results for the most recent school year are limited because the district’s small class sizes trigger suppression rules that protect student privacy. The available data shows just one clear result: seventh-grade English language arts, where a majority of students met the state’s proficiency standard. That single point places the district’s overall proficiency index, which averages all reported subject and grade results, in the top quartile among Cochise County’s districts. In math, the overall picture is less clear because most grade-level results are suppressed. The district’s reported all-grade math proficiency, which combines the non-suppressed data it can release, stands at a level below the ELA result. Science results for both fifth and eighth grade are fully suppressed, so no read on that subject is possible here. A parent looking for a fuller picture of academic performance at specific grade levels may want to inquire directly with the school, as the small enrollment means fewer data points appear in public reports.
Chronic absenteeism affects a notable share of students, with a rate that sits above the midpoint among county districts. This is a soft spot worth a conversation with the school if attendance patterns are a concern for your family. Per-pupil spending falls in the upper half of the middle range among Cochise County districts, which suggests the district is not unusually lean or especially well-funded relative to its neighbors.
Housing in the area is relatively affordable compared to state and national benchmarks. Home values across the district’s zip codes show some variation, with the Pearce-area zip registering a modest year-over-year increase while the Elfrida-area zip and a second Pearce zip have seen small declines. Overall, the weighted district home value is well below the Arizona statewide average. This is a rural setting where housing costs are not the barrier they are in larger metro areas.
The district brief turned up no major recent changes such as boundary shifts, program launches, or leadership turnover that would carry a clear impact for parents. Routine program descriptions exist for social-emotional learning, tutoring, and class restructuring, but these do not appear to be newly implemented changes with lasting effect. As a result, the district profile is stable and low-drama on that front.
What this district offers is a small, rural elementary setting where a single school serves the whole community. The academic picture is fragmentary due to the small size, but the available data points to ELA performance that compares well with other county districts. The chronic absenteeism rate is a concrete issue to explore. For families who want a tight-knit school that stops at eighth grade, and who are comfortable working with the school to understand student progress where public data is suppressed, Pearce Elementary District fits as a straightforward, low-profile option in southeastern Arizona.
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