The top reported proficiency rate is 26% in Science. The lowest is 18% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Ellsworth Elementary School
Ellsworth Elementary School serves students from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade in Queen Creek, Arizona, as part of the J O Combs Unified School District. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet institution, and it sits within a community that has grown rapidly from its agricultural roots into a sprawling suburban expanse southeast of Phoenix. Queen Creek is car-dependent, with subdivisions and commercial strips spread across former farmland, and the town’s identity still carries a rural texture from its pecan groves, olive farms, and u-pick gardens. For a family considering this school, the town’s growth context matters: Queen Creek has been one of the fastest-growing places in Arizona, and the housing stock has largely been built within the last two decades, with home values and rents that reflect a relatively affluent, newcomer-heavy market.
Ellsworth itself is a mid-sized elementary school for its grade band. The student body is diverse, with a substantial share of students identifying as Hispanic, a roughly equal share as white, and smaller populations of Black, multiracial, Native American, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students. The school serves a pre-kindergarten program, which is a resource for families with younger children, and it follows a standard PK-6 structure, so students move on to a middle school after sixth grade.
State testing results from the most recent school year show that academic proficiency is an area where the school faces clear challenges. In English language arts, the share of students scoring proficient across grades three through six was below the midpoint among districts in Pinal County, and the same was true in mathematics. The data available for math shows a low proficiency rate in fifth grade, and the school’s overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades falls below the county median. In science, the single grade tested, fifth grade, also shows a low proficiency rate. It is worth noting that proficiency rates for several grade levels in math were suppressed, which can happen when the number of students tested is small, so the full picture in that subject is not complete across every grade. A parent looking at these results will want to ask the school directly about what academic interventions and supports are in place and how the school is working to move these numbers.
The school has not reported free-or-reduced-price lunch data, so the share of students from lower-income households is not available from this data. Similarly, data on students with individualized education programs and English learners is not included here. The school’s discipline data, staffing ratios, and chronic absenteeism rates are also absent from this profile, so those are gaps a family would want to explore.
The district itself, J O Combs Unified, recently passed a budget override that funds teacher and staff pay, special education, arts, music, physical education, class size management, and extracurricular activities. The district also adopted a five-year strategic plan focused on student achievement, school culture, operational efficiency, and community engagement. These developments suggest that district-level leadership is actively investing in areas that directly affect classroom experience.
For a family evaluating Ellsworth Elementary, the bottom line is straightforward. The school sits in a fast-growing, suburban community with a family demographic and a relatively expensive housing market. The school itself offers pre-K and a full elementary program through sixth grade, with a diverse student body. The academic performance data, however, points to a school where proficiency rates in reading, math, and science are lower than many of its peers in Pinal County. A parent considering this school should visit, talk to teachers and the principal about how the school addresses these academic gaps, and look into what supports are available for students who are behind grade level. The district’s recent financial and strategic moves show an intentional effort to improve, but the current test results give a clear signal that the school has significant work ahead.
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