Desert Oasis Elementary School, Surprise AZ

Original Research by School Decision on Desert Oasis Elementary School

Desert Oasis Elementary School serves students from preschool through eighth grade as a regular public school in the Nadaburg Unified School District. The school sits in the northern portion of Surprise, a city in Maricopa County that has grown dramatically over the past several decades. Surprise’s character is primarily residential, with large master-planned communities and a recreation campus that draws spring training baseball crowds. The city itself is car-dependent and sprawling, with minimal public transit. The Nadaburg district covers a small section of northern Surprise, and the district brief turned up no recent changes to curriculum, pedagogy, or property tax matters for a parent to weigh.

The school’s enrollment is relatively modest for a PK-8 campus. Racially, the student body is majority white, with a substantial Hispanic presence making up roughly one-third of the population, and small shares of Black, Asian, Native American, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and multiracial students. Data on free or reduced-price meal eligibility, special education, and English learner status were not available in the provided records.

On state assessments for the most recent school year, Desert Oasis showed a pattern that parents may want to examine closely by grade level. In English language arts, proficiency rates varied across grades, with third and fourth graders posting stronger results, fourth grade reaching a level around the midpoint, while fifth and seventh graders landed at lower points. Eighth graders saw a recovery to about half of students meeting the bar. In math, the results were generally lower across the board, with no grade exceeding the mid-range and some falling well below it, notably fifth and eighth grades. Science testing in fifth and eighth grades also came in on the lower side. When the school is placed against other schools in Maricopa County districts, its overall proficiency index sits below the midpoint of the comparison set. This is a soft spot in the academic profile, and a parent considering the school would be right to ask the school directly about its approach to math and science instruction, and whether there are interventions in place for the upper elementary and middle school grades where results dipped most.

The school serves only through eighth grade, so there is no graduation rate available for this campus. That is simply a function of the grade band. Data on chronic absenteeism and discipline was not provided, so a parent interested in school climate or attendance patterns may need to seek that information from the district.

Given the limited program data in the profile, it is not clear what elective or enrichment offerings exist beyond the core academic subjects, especially for middle school students. A parent moving into the area or considering this school should ask about music, art, physical education, and any career or exploratory courses, as well as support services for students who are behind. The housing market in this zip code shows home values a bit above the state benchmark, with rents at a level that consumes roughly one-third of the typical local household income, a common strain in fast-growing suburban parts of Maricopa County.

The district brief found no recent major changes worth reporting, which means that whatever academic approach is in place has been stable by the available measures. For a family, Desert Oasis presents as a straightforward neighborhood school in a growing suburban setting, with a student body that is not heavily diverse by race and income, and academic outcomes that are strongest in early-grade English but uneven elsewhere. The school’s capacity to lift math and science performance, and to offer meaningful programming for older elementary and middle school students, are the questions a parent will want to answer before deciding.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 327%

School 27% · District 22% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Grade 435%

School 35% · District 33% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 519%

School 19% · District 17% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 27 pts below county median

Grade 821%

School 21% · District 15% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 345%

School 45% · District 35% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 454%

School 54% · District 47% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

Grade 527%

School 27% · District 27%

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 645%

School 45% · District 35% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 739%

School 39% · District 32% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 850%

School 50% · District 43% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 529%

School 29% · District 28% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Grade 822%

School 22% · District 19% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

This schoolNadaburg Unified School District (4252), 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.