Arizona Charter Academy, Surprise AZ

Original Research by School Decision on Arizona Charter Academy

Arizona Charter Academy is a K through 8 regular public charter school in Surprise, a fast-growing, car-dependent suburb northwest of Phoenix. The school sits on Dysart Road, in the portion of the city covered by the broader Success School district that houses this charter. The school serves kindergarten through eighth grade only; it does not have high school grades, so there is no graduation rate reported. The enrollment is a substantial size for a charter school, with the student body spread across each elementary and middle grade.

The student body is majority Hispanic, with a large share of white students, a sizable Black population, and smaller shares of students who are Asian, Native American, and of two or more races. Data on how many students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch or receive special education services or English learner support was not available.

State assessment results for math, English language arts, and science are available and paint a mixed picture. In math, proficiency rates in the elementary grades are higher than in the middle grades. Grade-level results show a noticeable drop once students enter the middle school years, with proficiency in the older grades reported at lower rates than in the younger ones. In English language arts, the pattern is more level across grades, with proficiency hovering around a similar modest share of students meeting the standard at each tested grade. Science results, available for fifth and eighth grades, also show proficiency below a majority benchmark. When compared to other districts in Maricopa County, Arizona Charter Academy’s overall proficiency index lands below the midpoint among those districts that report comparable data. A parent investigating the school may want to ask specifically about academic supports in the middle grades and how the school addresses declining math performance as students get older.

Surprise itself offers a specific context. It is a sprawling suburban city that experienced rapid population growth in recent decades, driven in part by large master-planned retirement communities like Sun City Grand. The city’s civic and recreation life is anchored by a central Recreation Campus with a stadium used for spring training baseball, parks, an aquatics center, and a library. The built environment is car-dependent, transit is minimal, and major employers include the Dysart Unified School District, the city government, and large retail and service chains. The school sits within this suburban setting, where housing values and rents, according to recent market data, are at a level below state and national benchmarks for the same period.

The school itself is a regular charter school, meaning it is publicly funded but operates independently of a traditional district. The school’s parent district, Success School, had very little publicly available information about recent changes or strategic priorities, so none is included here.

Arizona Charter Academy is a large single-campus option for a family seeking a K-8 charter school in a growing Phoenix-area suburb. Its academic picture shows a school where elementary literacy and math scores are variable and where middle school math is a weaker area that may warrant closer inquiry. Its setting is a sprawling, car-oriented city with strong recreation amenities and a very fast growth history. The school does not offer high school grades, so families will need to plan for high school placement elsewhere. The available data does not include student support program participation rates, which a parent may want to learn more about directly from the school.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 340%

School 40% · District 38% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Grade 453%

School 53% · District 52% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 539%

School 39% · District 39%

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

Grade 642%

School 42% · District 42%

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 723%

School 23% · District 22% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Grade 826%

School 26% · District 25% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 336%

School 36% · District 34% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Grade 432%

School 32% · District 32%

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

Grade 528%

School 28% · District 27% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 643%

School 43% · District 41% · ▲ 2 pts above district

even with state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 740%

School 40% · District 39% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 842%

School 42% · District 41% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median · even with county median

Science

Grade 526%

School 26% · District 26%

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

Grade 829%

School 29% · District 29%

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

This schoolSuccess School (79453), 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.