The top reported proficiency rate is 43% in English language arts. The lowest is 21% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on John M Andersen Elementary School
John M Andersen Elementary School is a regular public school in Chandler, a large Phoenix-area suburb that serves as a major technology and semiconductor employment hub. The school offers pre-kindergarten through sixth grade and is part of the Chandler Unified School District, one of the area’s larger districts. Enrollment is modest for an elementary school, and the student body is majority Hispanic, with a substantial white minority and smaller shares of Black, Asian, multiracial, and Native American students. Information on free or reduced-price lunch eligibility, special education identification, and English learner status was not available in the data, so a family would need to ask the school directly about the share of students receiving support services.
Academic achievement is measured by state assessments in grades three through five for math, reading, and science. Across those tested grades and subjects, the school’s overall proficiency index places it below the midpoint among districts in Maricopa County, giving a soft signal that peer schools in the region tend to have a higher combined pass rate. The pattern varies noticeably by grade level. Third graders posted a proficiency rate in reading and math that was in the mid- to upper-forties, a reasonable starting point. Fourth graders performed stronger in reading, where the share meeting the bar was higher than in math. Fifth graders, however, saw a significant drop: less than a third of students were proficient in reading, and only about one in five in math, with the science test showing a similar low level. The lack of testing data for kindergarten through second grade means there is no academic benchmark for the early years. The school’s own multi-year trend data is limited to a single year, offering no track record to show whether these results are improving or declining.
Because Andersen is a pre-K through 6 school, there is no graduation rate, and no chronic absenteeism data was reported, so a parent considering the school should look into attendance patterns directly. The data also did not include any information on disciplinary actions, course access, or staffing ratios, all of which can affect the day-to-day experience.
The surrounding community shapes what Andersen families can expect outside school hours. Chandler is a car-oriented desert suburb defined by wide arterial roads, freeway interchanges, and master-planned subdivisions. The historic downtown is small and walkable, but most residential neighborhoods require driving to retail and services. Housing values in the school’s zip code were in the mid-400,000s and rents in the mid-1,700s as of early 2026, which is broadly in line with the metropolitan area’s affordability challenges. The city has seen substantial population and job growth driven by tech employers like Intel, and that growth has brought new residential development, though the district brief did not turn up any recent parent-relevant changes or budget shifts that would directly affect the school.
For families evaluating Andersen, the academic picture is mixed. The school has a stable enrollment and serves a diverse student body in a well-resourced district, but the achievement data shows a sharp decline between third grade and fifth grade, particularly in math, reading, and science. A parent may want to investigate what supports are in place for upper elementary students, how the school addresses learning gaps, and what the transition to middle school looks like. Without program offerings or staffing details in the available data, a direct visit and conversation with the principal would be essential to fill in the rest of the picture.
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