The top reported proficiency rate is 70% in English language arts. The lowest is 53% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Mercury Mine Elementary School
Mercury Mine Elementary School serves pre-kindergarten through sixth grade in north-central Phoenix, a section of the city where the street grid is wide and car-oriented, typical of a sprawling urban environment. The school is part of the Paradise Valley Unified District, which covers a substantial portion of northeast Phoenix and nearby communities. The district’s recent publicly available information did not flag any major parent-relevant changes such as boundary shifts, school closures, or program launches, so families may need to check with the district directly for any developments in the pipeline.
The student body is predominantly white, with a significant Hispanic minority and small shares of Asian, Black, and multiracial students. Enrollment hovers around a mid-sized elementary count for this grade band, with class groups that run relatively even from kindergarten through sixth grade, except for a pre-kindergarten program that serves only a handful of children. Data on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals, as well as counts for students with disabilities and English learners, were not available; a parent who wants to understand the school’s support infrastructure for these populations would need to ask the school directly.
On state assessments administered in the 2024-25 school year, Mercury Mine’s all-students results show a mixed picture that shifts by grade level. In English language arts, third graders demonstrated proficiency at a rate that was modestly above half, fourth graders and sixth graders both posted stronger numbers near the four-in-five mark, and fifth graders landed around the middle. Math results followed a steeper pattern: third and fourth graders both showed proficiency at a level above two-thirds, while fifth and sixth graders dropped to rates below half. The proficiency index, which averages all tested subjects and grades together, placed the school in the top quartile relative to all districts in Maricopa County. This is a strong overall position, though the drop in math performance in the upper elementary grades is a soft spot worth attention. Science results, available only for fifth grade, were around the midpoint.
The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. Chronic absenteeism data was also absent from the available record, though this is often a gap for schools that do not report it at a level that reaches the state’s public data.
The neighborhood around the school sits within the Phoenix housing market, which has experienced strong price growth over recent years. Home values in the immediate zip code are well above the state median and well above the national median, reflecting a higher-cost pocket of the metro area. Rents have risen sharply year over year, and the gap between a typical monthly mortgage payment and rent suggests that buying carries a premium above renting. This is a market where the cost of entry is high, and families looking at the school should weigh housing affordability against the school’s academic profile.
The school operates on a regular public school model and is not a charter or magnet. Program offerings were not detailed in the data, so the full breadth of enrichment, arts, music, or extracurricular activities is not documented here. Parents who want to know whether the school offers gifted programming, language instruction, or other specialized options would need to consult the school’s website or visit in person.
Mercury Mine sits in a large, fast-growing city with an economy anchored in high technology, manufacturing, and tourism. The downtown civic core is a reasonable drive south, but the school’s location is in a largely residential part of the city. For a family looking for a regular elementary school in north-central Phoenix with a mostly white student composition, a strong overall proficiency record that places it among the strong performers in the county, and a notable drop in math proficiency in the upper grades that a parent should investigate further, Mercury Mine fits a specific profile: it is a solid academic performer with a particular grade-level pattern that may matter most to families of fifth and sixth graders.
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