The top reported proficiency rate is 24% in English language arts. The lowest is 18% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Liberty Elementary School
Liberty Elementary School serves kindergarten through sixth grade as part of the Sunnyside Unified District in Tucson. It is a regular public school, not a charter. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with a much smaller number of American Indian or Alaska Native students and very few students who identify as White, Black, Asian, or multiracial. The school is located on South Liberty Avenue, in the southern part of the city.
Tucson itself is a sprawling desert city with a historic core, a major research university, and a wide geographic footprint that makes automobile travel common outside of downtown and the university area. The area around Liberty Elementary is within that larger suburban fabric. The housing market in the school's ZIP code shows home values slightly below the national typical level, and rents are also a bit lower than the national typical level, making the area comparatively more affordable than many parts of the country and the state overall.
Academically, the state testing data for Liberty Elementary paints a picture of a school where most students are not meeting the state's proficiency benchmarks. In the most recent school year for which data is reported, results for third grade show a low share of students scoring at the proficient level in English language arts and an even lower share in math. Fourth grade results show a similar pattern in English language arts. Sixth grade results were higher than the earlier grades in English language arts, with about a third of students proficient, but the overall pattern across the tested grades is one of achievement that falls well below statewide averages. The school’s overall proficiency index, which combines all tested subjects and grades, places Liberty Elementary in the bottom quartile when compared to other districts in Pima County. This is a consistent signal. A parent considering this school will want to look closely at what academic supports and interventions are available for students who are not yet at grade level.
Data on student support programs was not available in the record. There is no information on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, the share of students with an Individualized Education Program, or the share who are English learners. This is a notable gap, because these figures often help a parent understand the level of need a school is resourcing for. The absence of this data may be due to how the school or district reports it, not because the school lacks these populations, but a prospective family should ask the school directly about its special education services and English language development programs.
The district, Sunnyside Unified, is the larger context. Publicly reported financial data from a few years ago shows that the district’s revenue comes from a mix of federal, state, and local sources, which is typical for a public school system in Arizona.
Liberty Elementary is a neighborhood school serving a mostly Hispanic student population in a more affordable part of Tucson. Its academic performance, based on the state's own measures, is low relative to other schools in the county. For a family whose priority is a school where a majority of students are already hitting state benchmarks, this is not that place. For a family who is comfortable with a school that is working with significant academic challenges and wants to understand what targeted programs exist to move students forward, the next step is a direct conversation with the school about exactly those supports.
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