Gavilan Peak School, Anthem AZ - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Gavilan Peak School

Gavilan Peak School is a regular public school serving preschool through eighth grade in Anthem, a master-planned, primarily residential community in northern Maricopa County. The school belongs to the Deer Valley Unified School District. Anthem was developed as a planned community, family-oriented in character, with a high owner-occupancy rate and a median household income well above state and national figures. The community does not have a traditional downtown; civic and school life centers on an HOA-governed complex of parks, sports fields, trails, and the Anthem Community Center. Most working residents commute by car to jobs elsewhere in the Phoenix metro area, and the built environment is suburban and car-dependent. The school itself is integrated into residential neighborhoods.

The student body is predominantly white, with a Hispanic population making up the next largest share. Smaller numbers of Asian, two-or-more-races, and Black students are also enrolled. Data on the share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, as well as special education and English learner counts, was not available in the records we reviewed. The enrollment is moderate for a PK–8 school, with the largest grade-level groups in seventh and eighth grade and a smaller cohort in kindergarten.

On state assessments administered in the 2024–25 school year, Gavilan Peak students posted results that place the school’s overall proficiency index in the top quartile among districts across Maricopa County. This is a meaningful strength. Across tested grades, math proficiency rates showed some variation by grade. Third-grade math proficiency was strong, and fifth, sixth, and eighth graders also posted solid results, with a majority of students meeting the bar. Fourth-grade math proficiency was lower, with less than half of students reaching the proficient level, and seventh-grade math was about even. In English language arts, fourth, fifth, and sixth graders produced the highest proficiency rates, all at or above two-thirds of students. Third, seventh, and eighth graders fell in a range that was decent but softer, with about half to just over three-fifths proficient. In science, the only testable grades are fifth and eighth; both returned results where a solid majority of students scored proficient or above and levels were consistent with the school’s overall strong profile. Because the data available covers a single year, trend lines cannot yet be drawn.

As a PK–8 campus, Gavilan Peak does not have a graduation rate, nor does it offer the kind of high-school-level course access that families with older students may be evaluating. A parent seeking information on high school pathways would need to look to the district’s high schools. Chronic absenteeism and discipline data were not present in the records we received, so those characteristics of the school environment are not accounted for here.

Housing in the Anthem area reflects a high-cost market. Home values are elevated relative to the state median and have shown a slight year-over-year dip, while rents have ticked up. The estimated monthly mortgage cost on a typical home is substantially higher than the median rent, suggesting that homebuying is notably more expensive than renting in this area. The community is largely built out given its master-planned origins, and population growth has slowed compared to earlier decades. For a family considering this school, the academic picture is clearly one of above-average performance in a suburban, car-dependent, planned community where the housing market is expensive and the school feeds into the Deer Valley district for high school.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 375%

School 75% · District 56% · ▲ 19 pts above district

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 29 pts above county median

Grade 444%

School 44% · District 37% · ▲ 7 pts above district

even with state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 567%

School 67% · District 55% · ▲ 12 pts above district

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

Grade 659%

School 59% · District 26% · ▲ 33 pts above district

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

Grade 750%

School 50% · District 21% · ▲ 29 pts above district

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

Grade 856%

School 56% · District 43% · ▲ 13 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 350%

School 50% · District 23% · ▲ 27 pts above district

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

Grade 471%

School 71% · District 38% · ▲ 33 pts above district

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

Grade 567%

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

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

Grade 675%

School 75% · District 58% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▲ 32 pts above state median · ▲ 30 pts above county median

Grade 761%

School 61% · District 38% · ▲ 23 pts above district

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

Grade 862%

School 62% · District 56% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 568%

School 68% · District 51% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 29 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.