The top reported proficiency rate is 30% in English language arts. The lowest is 22% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Kerr Center for Agriscience
Kerr Center for Agriscience is a regular public K through 7 school operating within the Mesa Unified District, the largest school district in Arizona’s third-largest city. The school’s enrollment size fits a mid-sized elementary campus, and the student body is the most heavily Hispanic in its district: the largest share of students identify as Hispanic, with smaller shares of American Indian or Alaska Native, White, Black, and multiracial students. The school is not a charter and serves kindergarten through seventh grade; because it does not extend into high school, there is no graduation rate to report.
The school is located in Mesa, a sprawling, auto-oriented suburban city that began as an agricultural settlement and now mixes residential tracts, aerospace manufacturing, and a modest downtown core. The campus sits within West Mesa, the older and denser part of the city. Housing values in the school’s zip code run near the national median, and rents are moderate relative to incomes, though affordability is a growing concern across the Phoenix metro area.
State assessment results from the 2024-25 school year present a mixed picture that warrants a parent’s attention. In mathematics, proficiency rates for the grade levels that were reported fell in a range that is well below the state median. For the lower elementary grades where data are available, fewer than a third of students met the proficiency bar. Fifth grade showed the highest math proficiency among the reported grades, and results for grades 6, 7, and 8 were suppressed, meaning the tested groups were too small to report without risking student identification. In English language arts, the pattern is similar: the fifth and sixth grade proficiency rates that were reported are also low compared to statewide averages. Third and fourth grade ELA results were suppressed, as were seventh and eighth grade results. On the state science assessment, the single reported grade level, fifth grade, shows a proficiency rate that is well below the midpoint. The school’s overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades lands below the midpoint when compared against other districts in Maricopa County.
The small group sizes in the upper grades are a practical detail a family may want to explore directly with the school. Seventh grade, for example, had a very small number of students enrolled, and eight grade appears to have a similarly small group. The school runs through seventh grade, so eighth graders would be attending a different campus within Mesa Unified. Suppressed results for these grades mean the public data set cannot tell a family much about academic performance for older students at Kerr.
Because Kerr is a regular public school and part of Mesa Unified, any district-wide changes or priorities apply. The district brief found little of lasting impact in recent publicly reported changes, so this narrative relies on what the school itself supplies in the data rather than district context.
For a family considering Kerr, the core takeaway is the academic profile: the school’s test results are low relative to both state and county benchmarks, and the data do not provide enough detail on older grades to fully assess their learning. The school’s name suggests an agricultural or science focus, but the available data contain no description of programs or curriculum, so a parent would need to contact the school directly to understand what the agriscience center identity means in practice. This school fits a family that prioritizes a neighborhood campus within the Mesa Unified system and is prepared to investigate the academic support structures and instructional approach in person.
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