The top reported proficiency rate is 25% in Math. The lowest is 23% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Copper Basin
Copper Basin is a regular public school in the Florence Unified School District, serving students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. It is located in San Tan Valley, a fast-growing but still unincorporated residential community in northeastern Pinal County, roughly an hour southeast of Phoenix. San Tan Valley is a largely car-dependent bedroom suburb built around master-planned subdivisions, strip retail, and golf communities, with no traditional downtown. The area has seen rapid population growth over the past two decades and, following a 2025 incorporation vote, is beginning the transition from an unincorporated census-designated place into a new municipality. Median home values in the area have appreciated in recent years, and the typical cost to rent is moderate relative to national benchmarks, though the market remains a consideration for families.
The school operates as a regular public school within the district, not a charter or magnet. The Florence Unified School District, which serves Florence, San Tan Valley, and Queen Creek, positions itself as a district of educational choice with open enrollment, 1:1 technology, and emphasis on Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs. These district-wide features are available to Copper Basin families even though the school itself is an elementary and middle school. The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report.
State testing results for the most recent school year show that proficiency rates at Copper Basin were below the midpoint when compared with other districts in Pinal County. In mathematics, the share of students scoring proficient was in the mid-teens across grade levels that had reported results. In English language arts, proficiency rates by grade level ranged from roughly a fifth to a third of students, with fourth grade showing the highest rate and sixth grade the lowest. Science results were suppressed for privacy reasons, as were several other grade-level outcomes in math and ELA, so the full picture is incomplete. Parents looking for a full sense of academic attainment may want to follow up with the school directly about those suppressed figures and about how the school supports students who are not yet meeting proficiency targets.
The student body is diverse. Hispanic or Latino students make up the largest group, followed by white students, with smaller shares of Black, multiracial, American Indian or Alaska Native, and very small numbers of Asian and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students. The share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch was not reported. Information on students with disabilities and English learners was also not available in the data provided, which limits a full understanding of the school's support infrastructure.
Copper Basin is a midsize school for its grade band, with an enrollment that is relatively evenly distributed across kindergarten through eighth grade. It does not have pre-kindergarten students enrolled in the reported data. The school occupies a part of San Tan Valley that is still developing, and the area is served by multiple school districts, meaning families have educational choice within commuting distance.
For a family considering Copper Basin, the key factors are a school in a fast-growing suburban context, part of a district that promotes open enrollment and career-focused programming, but with state assessment results that are lower than many of its peers in the county. A parent may want to investigate how the school approaches interventions for students below grade level, what enrichment or accelerated options exist for middle school students, and how the district's CTE offerings connect to Copper Basin's programming, especially since the school ends at eighth grade and students will transition to a high school within the district.
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