Kyrene De Las Manitas School, Tempe AZ

Original Research by School Decision on Kyrene De Las Manitas School

Kyrene de las Manitas School sits in the southern portion of Tempe, an inner suburb of Phoenix best known as the home of Arizona State University’s main campus. The school serves students from preschool through eighth grade and is part of the Kyrene Elementary District. The northern parts of Tempe, with the light rail, the Mill Avenue district, and Tempe Town Lake, are more urban and pedestrian-oriented. The area around the school, farther south, reads as a lower-density setting of single-family homes, strip malls, and office parks. The district’s voters passed an override continuation in 2022 that maintains funding for art, music, physical education, foreign languages, and smaller class sizes.

The student body is diverse. The largest group is Hispanic students, followed by white students; there are also Black, two-or-more-races, Asian, American Indian, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students represented. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and enrollment is small enough that a reader could expect a neighborhood-school feel.

State assessment results are available for most grades and subjects, though results for several upper-grade math and English language arts tests were suppressed because the testing group was very small. In reading those results, a parent sees a range. In English language arts, fourth graders met the proficiency benchmark at a rate that was a relative bright spot, while third and fifth graders scored lower. In math, the pattern was similar, with third and fourth graders scoring at a moderate level and fifth graders lower. Eighth graders scored higher in English language arts than earlier grades. In science, fifth graders scored at a lower level. A combined index of proficiency across all tested subjects and grades places this school below the midpoint among the many districts in Maricopa County. A parent interested in these patterns may want to ask the school about the specific instructional approaches for the younger grades and for math.

Because the school serves only through eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to report. The same is true for non-applicable high school metrics like AP or dual-credit offerings. The data did not include information on free or reduced-price meal eligibility, special education identification, or English learner status, so a parent who wants to know the proportion of students receiving support services or the school’s Title I status would need to ask the district directly. Information on chronic absenteeism, discipline, course access, staffing, and attendance was also absent.

Housing in the school’s ZIP code is expensive relative to the state as a whole, with home values and rents well above statewide medians. The monthly mortgage estimate on a typical home, with a down payment, meaningfully exceeds the typical rent, so buying is out of reach for a household relying on local median income without substantial savings. The state and national economic context shows a steady unemployment rate and a rising rent index.

A family considering Kyrene de las Manitas will find a small, diverse PK-8 school in a stable district that has renewed its local funding for enrichment programs. The test results are mixed, with some grades doing better than others and an overall proficiency index that is below the county midpoint. This is the kind of school a parent would want to visit, talk to teachers about the instructional approach in the grades where results slip, and ask about the student-support resources that were not part of the public data.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 337%

School 37% · District 43% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 440%

School 40% · District 52% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 524%

School 24% · District 49% · ▼ 25 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 330%

School 30% · District 45% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 460%

School 60% · District 57% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Grade 533%

School 33% · District 49% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Grade 637%

School 37% · District 46% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 848%

School 48% · District 50% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Science

Grade 523%

School 23% · District 44% · ▼ 21 pts below district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

This schoolKyrene Elementary District (4267), 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.