The top reported proficiency rate is 69% in English language arts. The lowest is 62% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Great Hearts Academies - Glendale Prep
Great Heart Academies – Glendale Prep is a public charter school serving grades six through twelve in Peoria, a rapidly growing northwest suburb of Phoenix. The school operates as a single-campus charter under the Glendale Preparatory Academy district, which is itself part of the larger Great Hearts network. For a parent weighing this school, the available evidence points to strong academic performance in the middle grades, a student body that is predominantly white with notable Asian and Hispanic representation, and a community context of rising housing costs and robust economic development. At the same time, several pieces of information that many families rely on are absent from the data, so a careful look at what is and is not reported here is warranted.
On state assessments, the school’s results are solid. In math, the share of students scoring proficient or above was above the majority in each tested grade, and the same held true for English language arts. Science proficiency among eighth graders was also in that range. The school’s overall proficiency index, which averages performance across tested subjects and grades, places it in the top quarter of all districts within Maricopa County. That is a meaningful marker: among a large and diverse set of several hundred districts, this school’s performance sits toward the high end. These numbers come from the state’s AASA and AzSci assessments for the most recent school year and cover grades six through eight. Because Arizona tests those grades annually, the data gives a clear picture of academic footing for the middle years. The high school grades are not captured by those exams, so a parent looking at the upper end of the school should note that no direct test results for grades nine through twelve appear in the data. The graduation rate is also not reported, so that important metric for a school that serves through grade twelve is simply not available from this source.
Enrollment across the seven grade levels runs to several hundred students, with the middle school grades each somewhat larger than the high school grades, a pattern that is common in schools that have built up from the bottom. The racial and ethnic makeup shows a majority of students are white, with a substantial Asian presence and a smaller but still notable Hispanic share; other groups are present in single-digit percentages. Data on the share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price meals is missing, so the economic profile of the student body is not directly known. Likewise, information on students with disabilities or English learners is not reported here. A parent who cares about the range of student support services, or about how the school serves a diverse economic population, may want to look into this further with the school itself.
The community context matters. Peoria has grown quickly over the past few decades, from a small agricultural town into a sprawling suburban city of well over a hundred thousand residents. Its development strategy now focuses on attracting industrial and commercial projects, most notably a major semiconductor plant expected to create thousands of jobs. Housing values in the area are well above typical levels for the state and the nation as a whole, and rents follow a similar pattern. That puts the school in a relatively high-cost market, which often correlates with a more affluent residential base, though without direct economic data for the school it is impossible to confirm. The city itself is car-dependent, with entertainment and shopping concentrated in a few nodes rather than a traditional downtown, and with extensive trail systems and parks for outdoor recreation.
No program offerings were included in the data, so a parent considering this school would need to ask directly about Advanced Placement, dual enrollment, career and technical education, and extracurriculars. The lack of such data does not mean the school lacks them, only that this particular profile does not cover them.
For a family focused on strong middle-grade academic results and a charter environment within a growing suburban community, Great Hearts Academies – Glendale Prep appears to be a strong performer relative to its county peers. The missing pieces around high school outcomes, special populations, and economic context are gaps worth filling before making a decision.
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