Original Research by School Decision on Frances Owen Holaway Elementary School
Frances Owen Holaway Elementary School is a regular public school serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade within the Amphitheater Unified District in Tucson. It sits in the central part of the city, not far from the University of Arizona campus. The enrollment is moderate for an elementary school, and the student body is majority Hispanic, with White students making up the next largest share, followed by smaller numbers of Black, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students. The school draws from a surrounding neighborhood that is part of a large, sprawling desert city whose economy is anchored by the university, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, and a mix of tech and tourism industries.
State assessment data for Holaway is limited. For the most recent testing year, results for math, English language arts, and science were suppressed across all tested grades, meaning the state did not release proficiency rates for the school. The data available shows that in the aggregate across grades, the reported proficiency rate in both English language arts and math was below average. A parent looking at this school will not be able to see a clear test-based picture of academic performance from the state’s public data, and this is an area they may want to discuss directly with the school or district administration. Because the school serves only through fifth grade, there is no graduation rate to report.
The school does not have publicly reported figures for free or reduced-price lunch eligibility, special education identification, or English learner classification, so the level of economic need and the share of students receiving specialized instruction or language support are not available in the data reviewed. Similarly, information on discipline rates, staffing ratios, and course offerings was not present. The comparison set that places this school’s performance relative to other districts in Pima County could not be applied because the proficiency data was missing.
Holaway is a neighborhood elementary school under the Amphitheater Unified District, which has not shown any major recent parent-relevant changes in publicly available sources. The school building is located on Cherry Avenue, in an area of Tucson that includes a mix of older homes and mid-century housing stock. The housing market in the immediate zip code shows home values that are lower than the state average, and rents are somewhat below the national benchmark. The local unemployment rate has been stable at a moderate level, and mortgage rates in the spring of the most recent data year were above 6 percent, which is a factor for any family considering a home purchase in the attendance area.
For a family, Holaway offers a standard elementary pathway through fifth grade within a district that serves a large and diverse part of Tucson. The lack of published test results makes it difficult to assess academic performance from the outside, and the absence of data on student support populations means a parent would need to ask directly about the school’s resources for students who need extra academic help, language services, or special education. The school’s size and its place in a mid-sized unified district suggest it is likely a typical public elementary option in this part of the city, but the thin public record leaves many questions unanswered for a family trying to compare it to other schools.
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