The reported proficiency rate for English language arts is 28%.
Original Research by School Decision on Lakin Prep Academy
Lakin Prep Academy is a regular public school in the Littleton Elementary District, serving kindergarten through eighth grade in Avondale. The school is relatively new, with its operational status reported as new in the most recent federal data. It is not a charter school.
The student body is small and heavily concentrated in the lower elementary grades. Enrollment is largest in kindergarten and first grade, with a clear drop each year through the middle grades. The school currently reports no students in sixth, seventh, or eighth grade, meaning it is effectively operating as a kindergarten-through-fifth-grade school at this point, even though its official grade span extends through eighth grade. For a parent considering a middle school placement, this matters: there is no middle school program in the building today. A family looking for a single school that will carry a child from kindergarten through the end of middle school would not yet find that here.
The student population is predominantly Hispanic, with smaller shares of Black, white, and multiracial students. The share of students who are English learners and the share with an Individualized Education Program were not available in the data a parent may want to ask the district about both directly.
State assessment results are a significant concern. The data that was released shows very low proficiency rates in both English language arts and math. For the grades where results were reported, roughly a quarter of students met the state's proficiency bar in English language arts, and the rate in math was roughly half that. These figures place the school below the midpoint among all schools in Maricopa County on overall academic proficiency. State data for several grade levels in math, and for third and fourth grade English language arts and for science, was suppressed, which can happen when the tested group is small. The overall picture is of a school where a large majority of students are not scoring at the proficient level on state assessments. A parent would want to investigate what academic interventions and supports are in place, and how the school tracks student progress toward grade-level standards.
The district itself did not show any readily available recent changes such as a bond, override, or curriculum overhaul in the past four years that would signal a new direction.
Avondale is a fast-growing Phoenix suburb that has rapidly transitioned from farmland to a residential and commercial hub. The city has a historic Old Town area along Western Avenue, but the broader built environment is suburban and auto-dependent. Interstate 10 runs through the north part of the city. Major employers include Amazon, the community college district, the city government, and the local school districts, making education and government anchor sectors. The city has numerous parks and hosts regular community events. Housing values in the area are slightly below the state benchmark, and the local housing market has seen modest recent price softening.
For a family choosing a school, Lakin Prep Academy is a very small, early-elementary-heavy school in a growing suburban part of the Phoenix metro area. Its defining current feature is that it does not yet serve the middle school grades it is authorized to offer, and its state assessment results are low. It sits within the Littleton Elementary District, which has not publicly signaled recent academic program overhauls. A parent looking at this school should ask specific questions about academic support for struggling students, whether middle school grades will be added in the future, and what the school's plan is for lifting achievement.
See more original research from School Decision →