Oakwood Elementary School, Peoria AZ

Original Research by School Decision on Oakwood Elementary School

Oakwood Elementary School sits within the Peoria Unified School District, serving students from preschool through eighth grade in a regular public school setting in Peoria, Arizona. Peoria itself is a rapidly growing suburban city northwest of Phoenix, originally an agricultural community that has shifted toward resort and leisure living and industrial development along a major freeway corridor. The city’s built environment is low-density and car-dependent, with commercial and civic life distributed across nodes like the P83 Entertainment District and Park West rather than a single walkable downtown core. Spring training baseball at the Peoria Sports Complex, the large Lake Pleasant Regional Park to the north, and a planned semiconductor plant from Amkor Technology are among the area’s major anchors. The district’s footprint is stable, with 44 schools serving Peoria, Glendale, Youngtown, and a small part of Surprise, and no major school closures or openings have been publicly reported in recent years.

Oakwood is a mid-sized elementary-through-middle school by enrollment for its grade band, and its student body is predominantly white, with a substantial Hispanic population and smaller shares of Asian, Black, multiracial, and other groups. The share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch was not available in the data, so a parent would want to check with the school directly on that measure, as it often signals the level of economic diversity in the peer environment.

On state assessments, the school’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades sits above the midpoint relative to other districts in Maricopa County, a strong showing in a large and varied county. In English language arts, proficiency rates across grades three through eight cluster around the middle to upper end of the range, with a couple of grades reaching notably high levels and a few falling closer to the middle. Math proficiency rates are more variable. The early elementary grades post solid numbers, but performance dips in the upper elementary and middle school grades, where roughly one-third to under one-half of students meet the bar depending on the grade. Science results in both fifth and eighth grade also show about half of students reaching proficiency. A parent with a child moving into the middle-grade years may want to ask the school how it supports students who are not yet meeting the math benchmarks and whether intervention or acceleration options are available.

Because the school serves only through eighth grade, there is no high school graduation rate to report. That is a natural gap given the grade band. For families considering Oakwood, the next step is to look at which high school their child would feed into within the Peoria Unified system and evaluate that school’s offerings and outcomes.

The data did not include information on programs such as gifted education, music, world languages, or career and technical pathways, nor did it include disciplinary or chronic absenteeism rates. A parent evaluating the school’s full environment may want to ask the school directly about academic enrichment opportunities, special education services, English learner support, and school climate. Those details can make a meaningful difference in whether the school fits a particular child.

Overall, Oakwood Elementary School offers a solid academic profile that is competitive within its county context, with some unevenness in math as students progress through the grades. Its suburban setting and stable district provide a familiar landscape for families already in the northwest Valley, and its size means enough students to offer a typical range of elementary and middle school experiences without the scale of a large high school campus. The absence of data on economic diversity and program depth means a prospective family would benefit from a school visit and a direct conversation with staff to fill in the picture.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 358%

School 58% · District 27% · ▲ 31 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 464%

School 64% · District 47% · ▲ 17 pts above district

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

Grade 540%

School 40% · District 21% · ▲ 19 pts above district

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

Grade 656%

School 56% · District 33% · ▲ 23 pts above district

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

Grade 736%

School 36% · District 31% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 847%

School 47% · District 34% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 349%

School 49% · District 41% · ▲ 8 pts above district

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

Grade 467%

School 67% · District 52% · ▲ 15 pts above district

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

Grade 545%

School 45% · District 40% · ▲ 5 pts above district

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

Grade 661%

School 61% · District 43% · ▲ 18 pts above district

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

Grade 759%

School 59% · District 25% · ▲ 34 pts above district

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

Grade 853%

School 53% · District 45% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Science

Grade 547%

School 47% · District 36% · ▲ 11 pts above district

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

Grade 843%

School 43% · District 33% · ▲ 10 pts above district

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

This schoolPeoria Unified School District (4237), 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.