The top reported proficiency rate is 32% in English language arts. The lowest is 13% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Deer Valley Middle School
Deer Valley Middle School serves seventh and eighth graders in the northern Phoenix area, part of the Deer Valley Unified School District. It is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet.
The school serves a student body that reflects the diversity of its section of the city. Hispanic students make up the largest share, followed by white students, with smaller populations of Black, two-or-more-races, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students. Information on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals was not available, nor was data on the number of students with disabilities or English learners.
On state assessments administered in the 2024-25 school year, a substantial portion of students scored below the proficient level in both math and English language arts. For math, the share of students reaching proficiency was in the low double digits in both seventh and eighth grades, a figure that places the school well below the midpoint among similar schools across the state. In English language arts, proficiency rates were higher—close to a third of students in each grade met the bar—but still significantly below many other schools in Maricopa County. In eighth-grade science, about a quarter of students scored proficient. These results give the school a statewide academic context that a parent would want to investigate further, particularly the math performance. The school provided test data for only a single year in the most recent assessment, so it is not possible to see a trend from prior years.
The school is a two-year middle school with a total enrollment that is moderate for that grade band. The campus is located on North 27th Avenue in a residential part of northern Phoenix. The city of Phoenix itself is a large, sprawling urban center with a diversified economy built around services, technology, manufacturing, tourism, and air transportation via Sky Harbor International Airport. It is an area that has seen substantial population growth over time, though recent economic data for the broader metro area shows home values have slightly declined year-over-year, and mortgage rates have been elevated relative to recent lows. The housing market in the immediate school zip code reflects a price point and rent level that is within the range of many Phoenix-area neighborhoods.
The Deer Valley Unified School District, the parent entity, did not have any recent parent-relevant changes such as bond elections, curriculum shifts, or major budget decisions that could be confirmed in publicly available records. A search for district strategic priorities or recent initiatives did not produce specific, attributable results, so that aspect is left unaddressed.
The school itself offers no data on program offerings—things like advanced coursework, electives, or extracurriculars—so a family interested in those areas would need to contact the school directly. Similarly, there is no information available on chronic absenteeism or disciplinary rates. The neighbor comparison, which places this school among the districts of Maricopa County, shows its overall proficiency index landing in the bottom quarter of the measured schools. For a family with children approaching middle school age, this school presents a clear academic starting point that warrants a close look at the classroom experience, intervention supports, and what the school is doing to raise math achievement in particular.
See more original research from School Decision →