Red Mountain Ranch Elementary, Mesa AZ

Original Research by School Decision on Red Mountain Ranch Elementary

Red Mountain Ranch Elementary is a regular public school in Mesa, Arizona, serving preschool through sixth grade as part of the Mesa Unified District. It sits in the northeast part of the city, near the base of the Red Mountain ridgeline, in a suburban residential area that is still developing eastward. The school is a conventional neighborhood elementary — not a charter or magnet — and draws from the surrounding subdivisions and apartment complexes of this newer section of Mesa.

State assessment results for the 2024-25 school year show that the school’s students perform above the midpoint among districts across Maricopa County when all tested subjects and grades are averaged together. That is a solid relative standing for a regular elementary. In math, proficiency rates in grades three through six range from roughly half of students meeting the bar in fifth grade to about two-thirds in third grade. In English language arts, the range is similar, with sixth grade hitting roughly three-fifths proficient and fourth grade slightly lower. Fifth-grade science proficiency is lower, at about a third of students meeting the standard. This is the only tested science grade in this band, and it is worth a parent’s attention if they want to understand how the school is building science foundations — it is an area where the school performs notably below its math and ELA results. Because the data includes only a single year, there is no trend to report; these results represent a one-year snapshot.

The student body is roughly four hundred and forty children spread fairly evenly from pre-K through sixth grade. Racially and ethnically, the school is predominantly White, making up about two-thirds of enrollment. Hispanic students account for roughly one-fifth. Smaller shares of multiracial, Black, and Asian students make up the remainder, along with a handful of American Indian and Pacific Islander students. Data on how many students qualify for free or reduced-price meals is not available, nor are counts of students with disabilities or English learners. Those gaps mean that a parent cannot assess economic diversity or the level of special education and language support from this record alone; asking the school directly would be necessary.

Housing values in the zip code covering this school are above both the state and national typical figures, and rents follow a similar pattern. The area is part of a city that has grown rapidly since World War Two and continues to expand eastward, with new housing developments and commercial nodes pushing toward the city limits. The immediate neighborhood is auto-oriented, like most of Mesa, with wide arterial roads and strip commercial centers; daily errands require a car. The school itself sits on a typical suburban campus.

No information is available about programs such as gifted education, arts, or extended learning, nor about discipline rates, chronic absenteeism, or staffing ratios. The district has not recently reported any major changes that would affect how families experience this school. For a family weighing this elementary against others in Mesa, the most concrete takeaway is that academic proficiency is a clear strength relative to county peers, while the science dip and the missing economic and support data are areas where further inquiry is warranted. It fits families looking for a straightforward neighborhood school in a growing, higher-cost suburban part of Mesa, with above-average test performance in the core elementary subjects.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 366%

School 66% · District 19% · ▲ 47 pts above district

▲ 22 pts above state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

Grade 461%

School 61% · District 24% · ▲ 37 pts above district

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Grade 550%

School 50% · District 15% · ▲ 35 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 656%

School 56% · District 13% · ▲ 43 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 358%

School 58% · District 17% · ▲ 41 pts above district

▲ 18 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Grade 455%

School 55% · District 27% · ▲ 28 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 550%

School 50% · District 19% · ▲ 31 pts above district

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

Grade 659%

School 59% · District 43% · ▲ 16 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Grade 763%

School 63% · District 38% · ▲ 25 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 537%

School 37% · District 33% · ▲ 4 pts above district

even with state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

This schoolMesa Unified District (4235), 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.