Dorothy Stinson School, Safford AZ

Original Research by School Decision on Dorothy Stinson School

Dorothy Stinson School is a regular public elementary school serving prekindergarten through sixth grade in Safford, Arizona. It sits within the Safford Unified District, a system that serves a small city that functions as the commercial and government hub for southeastern Arizona and reaches into part of western New Mexico. The town’s economy draws on copper mining, agriculture — cotton, hay, and a large greenhouse operation producing tomatoes and cucumbers year-round — state and federal corrections facilities, retail, and light manufacturing. Safford is growing slowly, and the district did not report any recent bond, curriculum, or tax changes that a parent would want to track.

The school’s enrollment is moderate for its grade span. The student body is majority Hispanic, with a substantial white population and a handful of students identifying as two or more races, Black, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. Data on how many students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, receive special education services, or are classified as English learners was not reported. That is common; a parent may want to ask the school directly for those figures.

On state assessments in the most recent year, Dorothy Stinson’s results show a clear pattern: performance drops as students move up. In third grade, math proficiency was reported at the higher end of what the school recorded, while English language arts was lower. By fourth grade, reading proficiency rose notably, but math slipped. Fifth-grade scores fell sharply in both subjects, with the lowest proficiency reading in math for that grade. Science results for fifth grade also came in low. Sixth graders recovered somewhat in both math and English language arts. Looked at across all tested subjects and grades, the school’s overall proficiency sits above the midpoint relative to other schools in Graham County, but the drop-off in the upper elementary grades is a soft spot a parent would want to investigate further with the school.

Because Dorothy Stinson serves only through sixth grade, it has no graduation rate. The school does not offer high school programs such as Advanced Placement, career and technical education pathways, or dual enrollment, so those are not points to compare.

Housing in Safford is more affordable than the statewide benchmark, and mortgage rates at the time of this analysis were moderate. The area provides a traditional downtown, a county library with early literacy programs, Roper Lake State Park, and the Discovery Park Campus of Eastern Arizona College in neighboring Thatcher. The college is currently a two-year institution, though state legislation has been proposed to make it a four-year school.

Discipline, attendance, and staffing data were not available for this school, so a reader cannot gauge chronic absenteeism or student-teacher ratios from this profile. A parent considering Dorothy Stinson should visit, ask about upper-grade academic support and classroom composition, and seek details on how the school addresses the pattern of declining proficiency from third to fifth grade.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 355%

School 55% · District 46% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median

Grade 438%

School 38% · District 36% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 6 pts below state median

Grade 516%

School 16% · District 24% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 26 pts below state median

Grade 636%

School 36% · District 32% · ▲ 4 pts above district

even with state median

English language arts

Grade 331%

School 31% · District 37% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 9 pts below state median

Grade 452%

School 52% · District 49% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 5 pts above state median

Grade 525%

School 25% · District 32% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median

Grade 643%

School 43% · District 45% · ▼ 2 pts below district

even with state median

Science

Grade 525%

School 25% · District 28% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median

This schoolSafford Unified District (4218), 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.