The top reported proficiency rate is 54% in English language arts. The lowest is 43% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Academy of Tucson Elementary School
Academy of Tucson Elementary School is a public charter school serving kindergarten through fifth grade in the city of Tucson, within the Academy of Tucson Inc. district. Because the school serves only elementary grades, there is no high school graduation rate to report, and the data does not include information on free or reduced-price meal eligibility, special education enrollment, or English learner status. This is a regular school operating as a charter, housed in a building on East Wrightstown Road in Tucson’s east side.
The school’s enrollment is relatively small for an elementary school, consistent with a charter setting. The student body reflects the broad demographics of Tucson’s east side, with the largest groups being white students and Hispanic students, followed by a smaller share of students identifying as two or more races, and then small numbers of Black, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students. The composition is diverse but leans white and Hispanic, which a family may want to weigh against their own preferences for peer environment.
State testing results for the 2024-25 school year give a mixed picture. In third-grade math, about half of students scored at the proficient level. In third-grade English language arts, slightly fewer than half reached proficiency. Fifth-grade results were more divergent: about two in five students were proficient in math, while more than three in five were proficient in ELA. Fifth-grade science proficiency was in a similar range to the school’s math outcomes. Fourth-grade results were suppressed, meaning the tested group was too small to report publicly, which is common in smaller schools. Across all tested subjects and grades, the school’s overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile relative to districts in Pima County, a strong comparative showing. A family reading these state results will see that fifth-grade reading is the clear standout, while math proficiency across grades is less consistent and a parent may want to ask the school how it addresses that.
The school offers no data on chronic absenteeism, disciplinary actions, course access, or staffing ratios, so there is no way to assess those dimensions of school climate or resource allocation from the available evidence. No recent district-level changes or initiatives met the bar for reporting, so the picture here is largely static. The Academy of Tucson Inc. district itself, as a single-charter entity, does not appear to have undergone notable recent restructuring or program overhauls.
Tucson itself is Arizona’s second-largest city, a sprawling desert metro anchored by the University of Arizona, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, and a growing tech and aerospace sector. The school is located in a residential area of the east side, a part of the city that is largely automobile-dependent, with typical suburban development. Housing values in the school’s ZIP code are slightly below the state median and have seen a modest year-over-year decline, while rents have increased more sharply. This suggests a market where buying may be more accessible than in some other parts of Tucson, though monthly costs for renters have been rising. The city’s economic context shows a national unemployment rate just above four percent and a 30-year fixed mortgage rate near six and a half percent, which are relevant for families considering relocation.
For a parent deciding whether this school fits, the strongest evidence is the proficiency index placing the school in the top quarter of Pima County districts. The standout is fifth-grade reading, where a solid majority of students meet the state’s proficiency bar. The weaker area is math, where results hover around the midpoint, and a prospective family should inquire about instructional approaches and supports there. The school’s small enrollment means a more intimate setting, but also the likelihood that single-year data can swing. The peer group is diverse in a way that mirrors the east side of Tucson, and the school operates independently as a charter, giving it some autonomy from the much larger Tucson Unified School District. Without data on special education, English learner services, or discipline, families with students who need those supports would need to contact the school directly. The community context is a large desert city with a strong university presence and a spread-out suburban residential fabric, and the school fits within that broader environment without being in the densest urban core.
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