Stetson Hills School, Phoenix AZ

Original Research by School Decision on Stetson Hills School

Stetson Hills School is a regular public school in the Deer Valley Unified School District, serving students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade on a single campus in north Phoenix. The school sits in a part of the city where the housing market reflects a higher cost of living, with home values and rents that are above typical levels for the Phoenix area, making it a more expensive pocket within the broader metropolitan region.

The student body is large for a pre-K-through-8 school. Demographically, the majority of students are white, with Asian students forming the next largest group and Hispanic students making up a notable share as well. The data did not include information on the share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, which is a gap that a parent may want to ask the school about directly, as it offers a window into the socioeconomic mix of the student population.

Academically, Stetson Hills posted a pattern of proficiency on state assessments that is strong overall. In math, proficiency rates across tested grades were consistently above the midpoint, with most grades showing that a clear majority of students met the state standard. The one exception was eighth-grade math, where the share of proficient students dropped below the majority mark, a dip that often reflects the transition to more complex coursework and is worth a conversation with the school about how the curriculum supports students in that grade. In English language arts, the picture was similar: proficiency rates were solidly above half in every grade, with seventh and eighth graders posting the highest results. Science results, available for fifth and eighth grades, showed a majority of students meeting the standard in both. When compared to other schools across Maricopa County, Stetson Hills’ overall proficiency across subjects and grades sits in the top quartile, a strong showing that places it well above the typical school in the county. The school serves only through eighth grade, so there is no graduation rate to report.

The district brief did not surface any recent major changes such as bond measures, boundary adjustments, or curriculum shifts that would be immediately relevant to families, so the operating context appears stable as of the most recent available information.

For a family weighing a move into this area or choosing among feeder patterns, the academic takeaway is clear: Stetson Hills is a school where, in most subjects and most grades, a majority of students are meeting the state-defined proficiency benchmarks, and its performance relative to the wider county is notably strong. The dip in upper-grade math is a soft spot to research further, but it does not undo the overall picture. The peer environment at this school is one defined by significant racial and economic diversity of some kinds—less than would be typical for a Phoenix-area school—but the absence of free-and-reduced-lunch data makes it hard to fully characterize the economic spread. The setting is urban and car-oriented, in a fast-growing city, on a campus that feeds into the Deer Valley district’s high schools after eighth grade. The lack of tracked data on course access or staffing leaves those dimensions uncharacterized; a parent concerned about, say, advanced math pathways in middle school or class sizes would want to ask the school directly. For a family whose priority is a school with consistently strong test performance relative to the county, and who are comfortable with the housing costs this part of Phoenix demands, Stetson Hills fits that description.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 370%

School 70% · District 56% · ▲ 14 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

Grade 472%

School 72% · District 37% · ▲ 35 pts above district

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

Grade 565%

School 65% · District 55% · ▲ 10 pts above district

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

Grade 673%

School 73% · District 26% · ▲ 47 pts above district

▲ 37 pts above state median · ▲ 33 pts above county median

Grade 764%

School 64% · District 21% · ▲ 43 pts above district

▲ 32 pts above state median · ▲ 31 pts above county median

Grade 853%

School 53% · District 43% · ▲ 10 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 353%

School 53% · District 23% · ▲ 30 pts above district

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

Grade 455%

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

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 5 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 663%

School 63% · District 58% · ▲ 5 pts above district

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

Grade 770%

School 70% · District 38% · ▲ 32 pts above district

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

Grade 867%

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

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

Science

Grade 552%

School 52% · District 51% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 861%

School 61% · District 51% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 28 pts above state median · ▲ 26 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.