The reported proficiency rate for English language arts is 57%.
Original Research by School Decision on New School for the Arts Middle School
New School for the Arts Middle School is a small charter school in Tempe, serving grades six through eight. Located on Apache Boulevard, the school operates as its own single-school district. For a parent looking at this school, the name may suggest a focus on the arts, though the available data does not detail specific arts programming or academic pathways, so that is an assumption a family would need to confirm with the school directly.
Tempe itself is an inner suburb of Phoenix with a character shaped heavily by Arizona State University. The northern part of the city, where the school is located along a major thoroughfare, is fairly dense and urbanized, with the Mill Avenue entertainment district and the Valley Metro light rail line nearby. This is a college town where the university and downtown are deeply intertwined, giving the area a distinctly young, student-oriented energy. The southern parts of Tempe are more typical suburban strip-mall development. Housing values in the surrounding zip code sit near the statewide benchmark, and rents have been relatively flat.
The school is very small, with an enrollment that is modest for a middle school. The student body is majority white, with a substantial Hispanic population and a noticeable share of students who identify as two or more races. Very small numbers of Black, Native American, and Asian students round out the enrollment. Data on how many students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, receive special education services, or are English learners was not available.
State testing results are mixed but provide a partial picture. In seventh-grade English language arts, the proficiency rate was strong, with most students meeting the bar. In eighth-grade English language arts, the proficiency rate was lower. Math results for all three grades were suppressed in the data, meaning the counts were too small to report publicly, which is a common occurrence in small schools where a single student's result can reveal individual performance. Science results for eighth grade were also suppressed. Overall, when averaging the results that were reported across tested subjects and grades, the school sits above the midpoint among the many districts in Maricopa County. A parent will want to discuss math and science performance directly with the school since the public data cannot speak to those subjects.
The school serves only middle school grades, so there is no graduation rate to review, no advanced coursework such as AP or dual enrollment, and no career and technical education programs reported. It is a regular public charter school, not a magnet or Title I school, as those designations were not indicated.
No recent changes, such as curriculum shifts, boundary adjustments, or funding referenda, were found for this small charter district. The school appears to be a straightforward single-site operation.
This is a school that fits a family looking for a very small, charter middle school environment in an urban, university-adjacent part of Tempe. The academic picture is incomplete due to data suppression in math and science, though the ELA results that are visible show a range from strong in seventh grade to more mixed in eighth. A prospective family will want to ask about the arts focus implied by the school's name, what math and science instruction looks like, and how the school supports the transition to high school, a question that matters more when a school only serves grades six through eight.
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