Esperero Canyon Middle School, Tucson AZ

Original Research by School Decision on Esperero Canyon Middle School

Esperero Canyon Middle School is a regular public school serving grades six through eight in the Catalina Foothills Unified District, located within Tucson. The school sits in the Catalina Foothills area, a part of the city where home values run well above both the state and national averages and rents are high, indicating a relatively affluent residential catchment. The city of Tucson itself is a large desert metro area anchored by the University of Arizona and Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, with a wide geographic spread that makes automobile travel common outside the downtown and university core.

Academically, Esperero Canyon Middle School’s performance places it in the top quarter of districts in Pima County based on an overall proficiency index that averages results across tested subjects and grades. That is a strong showing. In English language arts, a majority of students met proficiency in each grade, a clear strength. In mathematics, roughly half of students in each grade met the proficiency standard, which is a respectable showing but trails the school’s ELA results. On the eighth-grade science assessment, about half of students scored proficient. Because the data available covers only a single school year, there is no basis to discuss trends or changes over time. The school does not serve high school grades, so it has no graduation rate.

The student body totals several hundred students. A majority are white, and a substantial share are Hispanic. Smaller numbers of students are Asian, identify as two or more races, or are Black. Enrollment information on students with disabilities and English learners was not available, nor was the share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price meals. Families should know that this data gap means a full picture of the school’s student support needs cannot be drawn from the records here; a conversation with the school would fill it in.

The school is a regular public school with no charter, magnet, or Title I designation in the data. It has no unusual special program or focus mentioned in the available information. Discipline records, course access, staffing ratios, and attendance rates were also absent from the data, so parents evaluating the school’s day-to-day environment and breadth of offerings would want to seek those details directly from the school or district.

For a family considering Esperero Canyon Middle School, the academic picture is reassuring: strong ELA results and solid math and science scores, all within a district that overall tests well relative to other Pima County districts. The setting is a suburban area of Tucson with high housing costs, which tends to correspond with a higher-income population and the resources that can bring to a school community. The school serves only middle school, so it feeds into Catalina Foothills high schools; families planning the full secondary path will want to look at those options as well. Given the gaps in the available data on student support services and extracurricular programs, the best next step for any interested parent is to contact the school directly to learn about the specific courses, clubs, and supports available to students.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 641%

School 41% · District 50% · ▼ 9 pts below district

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

Grade 753%

School 53% · District 55% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Grade 850%

School 50% · District 55% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▲ 18 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 668%

School 68% · District 70% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Grade 773%

School 73% · District 74% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 30 pts above state median · ▲ 28 pts above county median

Grade 867%

School 67% · District 67%

▲ 27 pts above state median · ▲ 29 pts above county median

Science

Grade 853%

School 53% · District 56% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

This schoolCatalina Foothills Unified District (4410), 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.