The reported proficiency rate for English language arts is 20%.
Original Research by School Decision on Cartwright School
Cartwright School is a regular public school in Phoenix, serving students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. It is part of the Cartwright Elementary District, which, as its name indicates, covers only elementary and middle grades; there is no high school within this district, so a graduation rate is not applicable here.
The school sits in a west Phoenix neighborhood within a city that is among the fastest growing in the nation, a sprawling urban center with a car-oriented grid, a major airport, and an economy built on services, technology, and manufacturing. The housing market in the zip code around the school is priced below the statewide median, and rents are similarly below the Arizona benchmark, making the area relatively more affordable than much of the Phoenix metro.
Cartwright School enrolls a student body that is overwhelmingly Hispanic, with modest numbers of Black, white, and other groups. The share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch was not reported in the data available, so a reader may want to ask the school directly about the level of economic need. Also unreported are the number of students with individualized education programs and the number classified as English learners, information that would help a family understand the support landscape.
The most important thing to know about Cartwright School’s academic picture is that it is incomplete. For the 2024-25 school year, Arizona’s state assessments – the AASA for math and English language arts, and AzSCI for science – returned proficiency rates for most tested grades as suppressed, meaning the data was not publicly released, likely because of small group sizes or other privacy thresholds. This suppression applied to every math grade from third through eighth, every ELA grade except fourth and eighth, and both science grades (fifth and eighth). Only two ELA results were reported: fourth-grade proficiency was around a quarter of students, and eighth-grade proficiency was around an eighth of students. With no reported math or science results, and with only those two ELA figures, a family cannot build a full picture of grade-level performance from state tests alone.
A broader comparison metric, using a proficiency index that averages across all tested subjects and grades where data was available, places Cartwright School’s academic performance in the bottom quarter of schools relative to districts across Maricopa County. This is a consistent signal that academic attainment is a significant area of concern, and a parent may want to discuss directly with the school how it supports students who are below grade-level benchmarks.
No information was provided about course offerings, extracurricular programs, or specialty pathways. The school’s website and the district’s recent priorities were not covered in the available research, so a family would need to reach out to learn about any enrichment or intervention programs.
Cartwright School is a neighborhood elementary and middle school in a large, growing city, serving a predominantly Hispanic student body in a relatively affordable part of Phoenix. The available test data is scant but points to low proficiency, and the school’s performance index places it in the lowest tier among Maricopa County districts. Without more detail on special populations, programs, and support structures, a family should seek firsthand information from the school to determine whether the academic and social environment aligns with their child’s needs.
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