The top reported proficiency rate is 47% in Science. The lowest is 42% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Kyrene De La Mariposa School
Kyrene de la Mariposa School is a regular public elementary school in Tempe serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. It is part of the Kyrene Elementary District, a system that voters in the district recently affirmed by passing an override continuation that maintains funding for art, music, physical education, foreign languages, and smaller class sizes. The school's student body is diverse: the largest single group of students is of Hispanic background, followed by white students, and then students who identify as two or more races, with smaller shares of Black, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Asian students. The school is located in the south part of Tempe, an inner suburb of Phoenix where development transitions from the dense, urbanized character near Arizona State University and Tempe Town Lake to lower-density single-family homes and strip malls. This means the immediate neighborhood around the school is more suburban in feel than the high-rise core to the north.
On state assessments, the school's overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades sits above the midpoint when compared with other districts across Maricopa County. Looking at the individual results by grade and subject, the picture is mixed. In English language arts, proficiency rates in the tested grades range from below half of students meeting the bar in third grade to about half of fourth graders meeting it, with fifth grade falling between those two. In math, the results show a clear downward pattern as students move up: proficiency is highest in third grade, drops in fourth, and is lower still in fifth. Science is tested only in fifth grade, and on that assessment just under half of students reached the proficient level. These are the most recent available results, and because the data does not include prior years under the same test, it is not possible to say whether these scores represent an improvement or a decline.
The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. Information on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch was not available, nor were data on the number of students with an individualized education program or those identified as English learners. A parent wanting to understand the full profile of student support and economic need would need to ask the school directly for these figures.
Tempe itself is a college town with Arizona State University's main campus deeply woven into the fabric of downtown. Major employers include the university, State Farm, and a cluster of corporate headquarters such as GoDaddy and First Solar. The city continues to grow, and its housing market reflects the desirability of the area: home values in the school's ZIP code are substantially above the state median, and rents are high enough that buying a home costs roughly the same as renting on a monthly basis. For families, this means the school draws from a community where housing is expensive relative to much of Arizona, which often correlates with a higher concentration of resources at home.
Because this is a K-5 school, there are no advanced placement or career and technical education pathways to assess. The program offerings were not available in the data, so a parent would want to confirm directly with the school what enrichment options exist beyond the core subjects. The district's continued override funding suggests that arts, music, and foreign language instruction are present, but the specific offerings at Mariposa are not detailed here.
For a family considering this school, the academic picture is one of a school whose test scores are in the middle of a very large county's range, with math results that soften as children get older. The school serves a diverse student population in a high-cost suburban setting within a large, well-known metro area. The lack of data on special populations and poverty rates is a notable gap; filling that in would help a parent understand the full support system in place.
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