Copper Trails, Goodyear AZ - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Copper Trails

Copper Trails is a regular public school in Goodyear serving pre-kindergarten through eighth grade and operating under the Avondale Elementary District. The school sits within a rapidly growing suburban city roughly 17 miles west of downtown Phoenix, an area characterized by large master-planned communities, strip commercial centers, and an auto-oriented layout. Goodyear has seen substantial population growth in recent years, driven by developments such as Estrella, Palm Valley, and the active-adult community PebbleCreek. New civic infrastructure, including a city hall complex that opened in 2022, reflects ongoing expansion. The broader Phoenix metro area has seen home values soften slightly in the latest data, and the typical rent in the area runs at about a quarter of the national median household income, which gives some sense of the affordability pressures families may face.

The school serves a student body that is quite diverse by race and ethnicity. Hispanic students make up the largest share of enrollment, followed by white students, Black students, and smaller numbers of Asian, multiracial, and Native American students. The enrollment is large, covering all elementary and middle school grades, with the biggest cohorts in the upper grades. State testing data was available for math, English language arts, and science across most tested grade levels. The overall picture across tested subjects and grades places Copper Trails below the midpoint among districts in Maricopa County, the comparison set used here. That is a straightforward block of information for a parent to weigh.

Looking across individual grades gives a more textured view. In math, the share of students meeting the state proficiency bar was highest at third grade, with a notable drop at fourth and fifth grades before rising again at seventh and eighth grades. The pattern in English language arts was different: fourth, sixth, and seventh graders had stronger outcomes, while third and fifth graders had lower proficiency rates. Science results, available for fifth and eighth grade, showed a similar spread, with the eighth grade performing substantially better than the fifth. These year-to-year fluctuations are common in a single year of data and do not necessarily signal a trend; a parent might ask the school about instructional alignment across grades to get a fuller picture.

The comparison set makes clear that on the proficiency index, which averages results across all tested subjects and grades, the school sits below the midpoint among the many districts in Maricopa County. This is not a verdict but a positioning. For context, the county is large and diverse, with schools ranging from very low to very high proficiency rates. Some families in Goodyear may find this information useful as they consider academic support or enrichment options.

The district brief turned up little in the way of recent parent-relevant changes such as budget overrides, bond elections, or new programs that would affect the school experience. That can be a neutral sign, suggesting stability, but it also means a parent looking for specific initiatives or upcoming shifts will need to check directly with the district or school.

Housing and community context matters for families deciding where to live. Goodyear remains a car-dependent suburb with Interstate 10 as the primary corridor. Major employers include the city itself, Cancer Treatment Centers of America, UPS, and the state prison complex. The city actively recruits businesses through tax incentives. Home values in the zip code area were near the state benchmark recently, with a modest year-over-year decline, while rents also saw a small dip. These are the kind of conditions a family would want to consider alongside the academic profile of the school.

For a family weighing Copper Trails, the key takeaways are grounded in what the data supports. The school offers a full pre-K through eighth grade program in a growing suburban city, with a diverse student body and academic outcomes that fall below the county median on a combined measure of proficiency. Performance varies by grade and subject, and the district appears to have been relatively quiet on major structural changes. This is a school a parent will want to visit, ask specific questions about curriculum and support in the grades where performance dips, and situate within the broader housing and community landscape of Goodyear.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 346%

School 46% · District 35% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 430%

School 30% · District 28% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 521%

School 21% · District 26% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

Grade 621%

School 21% · District 19% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Grade 731%

School 31% · District 27% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Grade 833%

School 33% · District 30% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 332%

School 32% · District 25% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 447%

School 47% · District 35% · ▲ 12 pts above district

even with state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 525%

School 25% · District 28% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Grade 656%

School 56% · District 38% · ▲ 18 pts above district

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

Grade 754%

School 54% · District 42% · ▲ 12 pts above district

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

Grade 847%

School 47% · District 44% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Science

Grade 521%

School 21% · District 23% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

Grade 833%

School 33% · District 30% · ▲ 3 pts above district

even with state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

This schoolAvondale Elementary District (4272), 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.