Leman Academy of Excellence, Tucson AZ

Original Research by School Decision on Leman Academy of Excellence

Leman Academy of Excellence sits in Tucson, a sprawling Sonoran Desert city whose economy runs on the University of Arizona, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, and a tech corridor sometimes called Optics Valley. Downtown and the university campus form a connected urban core served by the Sun Link streetcar. Beyond that core, the city is largely automobile-dependent, with suburban-style neighborhoods spreading across a wide geographic area. Housing values in the immediate area around the school sit near the middle of the state benchmark, with rents rising modestly in recent data.

This is a charter school serving kindergarten through eighth grade, operating as a regular public school outside the traditional district structure. The school is set on the northwest side of town, in a part of Tucson that has seen ongoing suburban development. The enrollment is sizable for a K-8 campus, with students spread fairly evenly across the elementary grades and a slightly smaller middle school cohort. The student body is diverse, drawn from families who choose the charter. More than two-fifths of students are Hispanic, and a similar share is white. Smaller populations of Asian, Black, multiracial, and Native American students are also represented. Data on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch was not available, so it is not possible to characterize the school's economic profile from the numbers on hand. Information about students with disabilities and English learners was also missing, which a parent may want to ask the school about directly.

On the state assessments administered in the most recent year, the school's results tell a mixed story. In English language arts, proficiency rates across grades three through eight ranged from approaching half of students in third grade to well over two-thirds in the older grades, with the strongest performance in fourth and eighth grades. Math scores were lower overall, with some grades showing that about two-fifths of students met the proficiency bar and others reaching just over half. For the single year of data available, the school's composite proficiency across all tested subjects and grades places it among the top quarter of schools relative to other districts across Pima County. That is a strong showing in a large county with many school options. Science results were available for fifth and eighth grades; the share of students scoring proficient or above was notably higher at the eighth-grade level compared to fifth grade, a pattern that may reflect cumulative science instruction.

Because this school ends at eighth grade, there is no high school graduation rate to report. Chronic absenteeism data was also absent from the information available, so it is not possible to gauge attendance patterns here.

Leman Academy of Excellence Inc., the charter organization that operates the school, did not have substantial parent-relevant changes documented in publicly reported sources at the time of this profile. The school itself offers a single campus serving families who choose the charter.

What this adds up to is a K-8 charter school with an academically solid profile relative to the broader county, particularly in English language arts, and a clear ceiling at eighth grade that will require families to plan for high school enrollment elsewhere. That transition is a standard fact of life for any school that does not continue through twelfth grade. The school's position in the northwest portion of a large, fast-growing metro area means it draws from a part of Tucson where suburban development is active, and the housing market in that area reflects moderate pricing by state standards. A parent considering this school likely values a charter environment with a diverse student body and academic performance that, on the latest measures, sits comfortably above the typical school in Pima County, while being prepared to plan a separate high school pathway when the time comes.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 340%

School 40% · District 46% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 457%

School 57% · District 48% · ▲ 9 pts above district

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

Grade 555%

School 55% · District 46% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Grade 639%

School 39% · District 39%

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

Grade 741%

School 41% · District 43% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Grade 851%

School 51% · District 38% · ▲ 13 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 346%

School 46% · District 53% · ▼ 7 pts below district

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

Grade 471%

School 71% · District 62% · ▲ 9 pts above district

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

Grade 558%

School 58% · District 53% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Grade 664%

School 64% · District 58% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

Grade 768%

School 68% · District 57% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 23 pts above county median

Grade 871%

School 71% · District 57% · ▲ 14 pts above district

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 33 pts above county median

Science

Grade 541%

School 41% · District 33% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 859%

School 59% · District 37% · ▲ 22 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 23 pts above county median

This schoolLeman Academy of Excellence Inc. (92730), 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.