Great Hearts Academies - Veritas Prep, Phoenix AZ

Original Research by School Decision on Great Hearts Academies - Veritas Prep

Great Hearts Academies – Veritas Prep is a public charter school in Phoenix serving grades six through twelve. It operates as a regular school—meaning it is designed for a general education population—rather than an alternative or special-purpose school. The school sits under its own district entity, Veritas Preparatory Academy. Because it is a single-school district, the parent district and the school are effectively the same.

The student body, at the time of reporting, was predominantly white, with about a quarter of students identifying as Hispanic. Smaller shares identify as Asian, two or more races, or Black. The school’s free- or reduced-price lunch data was not reported, and data for students with disabilities and English learners was also missing, which means a parent cannot assess the school’s economic or special-education makeup from the available records. State testing data covers only grades six through eight in math, English language arts, and science, as Arizona administers those assessments in the earlier grades. For middle-school grades, reading and math proficiency rates place the school well above the midpoint among districts across Maricopa County. The school’s combined proficiency index, which averages results across all tested subjects and grades, also sits above the county midpoint. A parent looking at the raw pattern sees strong performance in English language arts, with a majority of students meeting or exceeding standards in each tested grade from sixth through eighth. Math proficiency is lower but still enjoys majority support except for a dip in seventh grade, where just under half of students tested at the proficient level. Science in eighth grade shows roughly two in five students proficient. There is no multi-year trend data beyond a single year’s worth of results, so the reader cannot tell whether these numbers reflect stable performance, an improving trajectory, or a decline. High school assessment data was not part of the available reporting, and the four-year graduation rate was not provided, so this school’s upper-grade academic outcomes, including whether students finish on time, are not captured in the data. A parent researching this school for high school would want to follow up directly on that question.

Phoenix is a large, fast-growing urban center with an economy that has moved well beyond its agricultural origins into technology, manufacturing, and services. The school is located in the city’s central corridor, on 56th Street near the Camelback and Arcadia neighborhoods, an area where residential property values are notably above the state average and where rents have held relatively steady. The neighborhood context suggests a community of above-average housing costs. The school itself is a charter, meaning families choose it independent of their residential address, and many families commute from across the larger metro area. The district brief turned up no recent changes or initiatives that would affect a parent’s decision, so the school appears to be operating in a steady institutional state.

Program offerings, such as Advanced Placement course availability, career and technical education pathways, or dual-enrollment options, were not reported in the available data. A parent looking for high school coursework breadth or college preparation programs would need to consult the school directly. The same applies to discipline rates, attendance data, and staffing ratios, none of which were present.

This is a charter school whose student body leans white and whose middle-grade academic results in reading and math are comfortably above the typical district in Maricopa County. The absence of high school outcome data creates a meaningful information gap for anyone considering it for the upper grades. A family weighing this school should be prepared to ask the school for its high school test results, graduation rate, and course catalog before making a choice.

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Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

90-94%Cohort of 69 students · Class of 2021

The federal source publishes a banded range instead of an exact rate when the graduating cohort is small enough that an exact number could risk identifying individual students.

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 651%

School 51% · District 50% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Grade 745%

School 45% · District 45%

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

Grade 859%

School 59% · District 58% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 27 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 667%

School 67% · District 66% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 764%

School 64% · District 63% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 871%

School 71% · District 71%

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 29 pts above county median

Science

Grade 842%

School 42% · District 42%

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

This schoolVeritas Preparatory Academy (80992), 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.