American Leadership Academy Queen Creek K-12, Queen Creek AZ

Original Research by School Decision on American Leadership Academy Queen Creek K-12

American Leadership Academy Queen Creek K-12 is a public charter school serving kindergarten through twelfth grade in the fast-growing southeast Phoenix suburb of Queen Creek. The school is part of the American Leadership Academy Inc. network, which has expanded to more than a dozen campuses across Arizona, a fact publicly reported. For a family considering this school, the key question is how its academic profile, peer environment, and community context come together.

Queen Creek itself is a predominantly residential, car-dependent community that has seen substantial population growth in recent years. It retains agricultural pockets and agritainment destinations, but the everyday experience is one of single-family subdivisions and arterial road commercial corridors. Housing values and rents have moved in a direction that suggests a softening market relative to recent highs, though the national context shows a broadly stable housing picture. Parents considering this school should expect to drive; there is no scheduled public transit.

The school's enrollment is large for a single K-12 charter, and the student body is predominantly white, with a Hispanic population making up a notable share. Data on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, receive special education services, or are English learners was not provided. This is a gap a parent may want to ask the school about directly.

On academic performance, the picture is mixed and uneven by grade level. In English language arts, the school's overall proficiency across all tested grades was roughly midway between the lowest and highest performers among Maricopa County districts. That aggregate figure masks variation: the earlier elementary grades showed a stronger proficiency rate, while the upper elementary and middle school grades showed a progressively lower rate. The eighth grade ELA proficiency rate was notably weak. The same pattern held in mathematics, where the elementary grades showed a moderate proficiency rate but the middle school grades dropped sharply. Eighth grade math proficiency was especially low. Science results were available for fifth and eighth grades, with the eighth grade proficiency rate considerably lower than the fifth. The school has only a single year of data available in the format provided, so there is no trend to assess. A parent would want to understand why the middle school years show such a steep decline relative to the early grades, and whether the school has strategies in place to address it.

A graduation rate for this school was not available in the data, so that important measure of high school completion cannot be assessed here. When a school serves twelfth grade and this metric is missing, it is a gap a parent should raise with the school administration directly.

The school's governance as a charter means it operates independently of the local unified school districts, of which Queen Creek has several. A parent choosing this school is opting out of the zoned district assignment. The American Leadership Academy network's continued expansion, as publicly reported, suggests a model that families in the region have chosen in growing numbers, though the network's overall size does not speak to this individual campus's day-to-day experience.

For a family, the bottom line is this. The school offers a single-campus K-12 experience in a high-growth suburban setting, with a student body that is not especially diverse economically or racially by the measures available. Academic proficiency overall sits around the middle of Maricopa County districts, but with a pattern of weaker performance in the middle grades that warrants attention. Parents with children entering middle school may want to investigate supports in those grades particularly. The absence of key data points on economic need, special education, English learner support, and graduation rate means that several fundamental questions about the school's student support framework cannot be answered from the information at hand. A direct conversation with the school is the logical next step for any family weighing this option.

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Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

96.0%Cohort of 248 students · Class of 2021

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

512 schools plotted. 33 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

Math

Grade 368%

School 68% · District 62% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 22 pts above county median

Grade 454%

School 54% · District 51% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 552%

School 52% · District 54% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 659%

School 59% · District 49% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

Grade 733%

School 33% · District 28% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 821%

School 21% · District 24% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 360%

School 60% · District 50% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Grade 455%

School 55% · District 59% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 554%

School 54% · District 54%

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Grade 657%

School 57% · District 59% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 751%

School 51% · District 48% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 835%

School 35% · District 40% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Science

Grade 546%

School 46% · District 51% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 827%

School 27% · District 35% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

This schoolAmerican Leadership Academy Inc. (4348), same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.