Palm Valley Elementary, Goodyear AZ

Original Research by School Decision on Palm Valley Elementary

Palm Valley Elementary serves pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in Goodyear, a rapidly growing suburban city west of Phoenix. The school is part of the Litchfield Elementary District. Goodyear has expanded quickly through large master-planned communities including Estrella, Palm Valley, and PebbleCreek, and its population has risen sharply in recent years. The city is car-dependent, built around Interstate 10, with a new City Hall complex opened in 2022 that combines a library, park, and civic space, though the city lacks a traditional walkable downtown.

The school enrolls a student body that is diverse. Hispanic students make up a substantial share, followed by White students, with Black, two-or-more-races, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and American Indian or Alaska Native students also represented. The proportion of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch was not reported in the available data. Information on students with disabilities and English learners was also absent from this profile, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about those support structures.

State testing results from the most recent school year show a mixed picture. In math, proficiency rates for third through fifth grade all sat near the midpoint range, with third and fourth grade somewhat higher than fifth. Sixth-grade math proficiency was lower. In English language arts, fourth and sixth grade were the stronger grades, with a bit over half of students proficient; third and fifth grade were lower, each at just over two-fifths proficient. Fifth-grade science proficiency was lower than both math and ELA at that grade level, with just over a third of students meeting the bar. Across all tested subjects and grades, the school’s overall proficiency index sits above the midpoint compared to other schools in districts across Maricopa County. Only two years of assessment data are available for trend calculation, which is not enough to establish a clear trajectory.

Because Palm Valley is an elementary and middle school, there is no high school graduation rate to report, and no data on chronic absenteeism was available in this profile. The school does not appear to offer the sort of advanced or career-oriented course menus that matter for high school families; those programs are not a feature of this grade band.

Litchfield Elementary District has not had significant or lasting changes publicly reported in recent years. The district brief turned up little of substance, so this narrative leaves that section empty rather than guess at what matters to parents.

The housing context in the area around the school shows home values that are above the state average. Rents are modestly below the estimated monthly mortgage payment, which means renting may be more affordable than buying for a typical household. The national median household income figure and the local housing-price-to-income ratio suggest that homeownership here requires a higher income than the national norm.

This is a school where a family will find a diverse student body and academic results that are in the middle to upper half of the county, with pockets of lower performance in specific grades and subjects that could warrant a closer look from parents. The city’s rapid growth means that the neighborhood around the school is likely still being built out, with new development continuing on former farmland. For a family considering this school, the main questions to pursue with the school itself would be about special education and English learner services, given the absence of that data, and about how the school addresses the drop in math proficiency between the earlier elementary grades and sixth grade.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 362%

School 62% · District 38% · ▲ 24 pts above district

▲ 18 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Grade 460%

School 60% · District 51% · ▲ 9 pts above district

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

Grade 557%

School 57% · District 53% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Grade 638%

School 38% · District 32% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 342%

School 42% · District 39% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 449%

School 49% · District 53% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 542%

School 42% · District 48% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 652%

School 52% · District 49% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Science

Grade 535%

School 35% · District 39% · ▼ 4 pts below district

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

This schoolLitchfield Elementary District (4281), 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.