Desert Mountain School, Desert Hills AZ

Original Research by School Decision on Desert Mountain School

Desert Mountain School is a regular public school serving students from preschool through eighth grade in the Deer Valley Unified District. It sits in the far northern reaches of the Phoenix metropolitan area, in a community that is primarily residential and low-density. The school is one of many in a large Maricopa County district, but its size and grade span give it a relatively contained, neighborhood-school feel.

Academically, Desert Mountain shows a pattern worth a close look. On the state’s assessments, math and English language arts proficiency rates are generally strongest in the early elementary grades and taper off as students move through middle school. For example, math proficiency in third grade is solid, with a majority of students meeting the bar, and continues at a similar level through fifth grade. In sixth grade the share proficient dips, then drops noticeably in seventh and eighth grades. English language arts follows a similar arc: a comfortable majority of third graders are proficient, and the rate holds fairly steady through seventh grade, but eighth grade sees a sharper decline. In science, fifth graders perform at a healthy level, while eighth graders are at a lower mark. The overall proficiency picture across all tested grades and subjects places the school above the midpoint when compared with other districts in Maricopa County, using the available composite measure. That is a meaningful strength, but a parent considering the school for the middle-grade years may want to ask the school directly about how it supports math and reading growth in the upper elementary and middle school grades, especially given the drop-off at eighth grade.

Because Desert Mountain does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report. Similarly, data on chronic absenteeism and discipline were not available in this data set. The school’s Title I status is not recorded, which often means the share of students from low-income households is below the threshold for federal schoolwide funding, but that cannot be confirmed here. Information on programs such as gifted education, special education, or English learner support is also absent from the data, so a family with specific needs would want to contact the school directly.

The student body is small for a PK-8 school. Racially, the student population is predominantly white, with a notable Hispanic minority and very small numbers of students who are Black, Asian, or multiracial. The free-or-reduced-price lunch count was not reported, nor were counts of students with disabilities or English learners, so the economic and support-need profile of the school is not visible from this data.

The community context for the school’s immediate attendance area is not straightforward from the data provided. The locale-brief material in the payload describes a different Desert Hills, one located in Mohave County near Lake Havasu. That does not match the school’s actual location. The school’s address falls within Maricopa County and a Phoenix-area zip code, in a part of the Deer Valley district that includes newer residential subdivisions and some rural acreage. Housing values in that zip code are moderately high relative to state and national benchmarks, and the typical rent is also above average, suggesting a largely middle- to upper-middle-income residential area. The district itself did not have any recent parent-relevant changes, such as bond elections or curriculum shifts, reported in the available research.

For a family looking at this school, the primary takeaway is a school that performs well in the early grades and sits above the county median for overall proficiency, but that appears to face a challenge maintaining that performance through the transition to middle school. The small enrollment and the absence of key demographic and program data mean that a visit and conversation with the principal and teachers would be especially valuable 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 367%

School 67% · District 56% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

Grade 462%

School 62% · District 37% · ▲ 25 pts above district

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

Grade 568%

School 68% · District 55% · ▲ 13 pts above district

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

Grade 655%

School 55% · District 26% · ▲ 29 pts above district

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

Grade 743%

School 43% · District 21% · ▲ 22 pts above district

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

Grade 823%

School 23% · District 43% · ▼ 20 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 360%

School 60% · District 23% · ▲ 37 pts above district

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

Grade 453%

School 53% · District 38% · ▲ 15 pts above district

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

Grade 556%

School 56% · District 52% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Grade 656%

School 56% · District 58% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Grade 755%

School 55% · District 38% · ▲ 17 pts above district

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

Grade 844%

School 44% · District 56% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Science

Grade 562%

School 62% · District 51% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 23 pts above county median

Grade 845%

School 45% · District 51% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

This schoolDeer Valley Unified District (4246), 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.