The top reported proficiency rate is 34% in English language arts. The lowest is 17% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Willis Junior High School
Willis Junior High School serves seventh and eighth graders in Chandler, a large Phoenix suburb that blends housing subdivisions with a significant tech and commercial employment base anchored by Intel and other semiconductor and financial-services employers. The school sits within the Chandler Unified School District, a system that is one of the city’s largest employers and covers a wide set of neighborhoods across this car-oriented city of freeway corridors, master-planned communities, and a smaller historic downtown.
The student body is large for a two-grade junior high, and the demographic profile is one of the most diverse in the area. Hispanic students make up the largest share, followed by white students, with smaller populations of Black, Asian, multiracial, and Native American students. Data on the share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price meals and on students with disabilities or English learner status was not available in the data we had to work with, so a family considering Willis would want to ask the school directly about the extent of supports for those populations.
State testing results place Willis well below average among districts in Maricopa County. The school’s combined proficiency index across math, English language arts, and science sits in the bottom quartile when compared to its district peers across the county. In English language arts, about a third of students met proficiency standards across both grades combined. Math scores are lower, with a modest share of students achieving proficiency, and in eighth-grade science, just under one in five students tested at the proficient level. These are the most recent results from a single testing year, and while the school’s year-over-year trend data shows a similar picture across two data points, the available trend window is too narrow to call a pattern. A parent would want to discuss with the school what instructional strategies are in place and how student progress is tracked between grades.
The school’s setting is a large suburban district in a growing city. Chandler’s population increased substantially in recent decades, and the tech sector continues to expand, particularly along the Price Road Corridor. Housing values in the area are above the national average, and rents are a meaningful share of income, which gives the neighborhood an established, middle-to-upper-middle-income character. The district’s publicly reported annual and financial filings from recent years were not detailed enough in the material we reviewed to surface specific parent-relevant changes, such as boundary adjustments, program expansions, or budget shifts, so that context is absent from this account.
Willis Junior High is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet. It serves only two grades, which means there is no graduation rate, and the school does not have the same vertical program offerings that a K through 12 campus might provide. For families moving through the Chandler Unified system, Willis is one step in a longer pathway. The student body is large and diverse, the academic results are weaker than most peers in the county, and the broader community is a growing, car-dependent suburb with a strong tech employment base.
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