Tanque Verde Elementary School, Tucson AZ

Original Research by School Decision on Tanque Verde Elementary School

Tanque Verde Elementary School is a regular public school serving prekindergarten through sixth grade, located in Tucson, Arizona, and part of the Tanque Verde Unified District. The school sits within a major desert city whose economy is anchored by the University of Arizona, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, and a growing tech and optics sector. Tucson’s core is walkable and connected by a streetcar, but the city’s wide geographic footprint means most residential areas, including the northeastern part where Tanque Verde is situated, are automobile-dependent with suburban-style development.

The student body at this school is predominantly white, with a substantial Hispanic population making up roughly a fifth of enrollment, and very small shares of other racial and ethnic groups. No data was available for the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, nor for the percentage of students with an Individualized Education Program or those classified as English learners, so a parent who wants to know about the school’s socioeconomic or special education profile may want to reach out to the school directly for that information.

Academically, the schools’s performance on statewide assessments in the most recent testing year stands out as a clear strength. The school demonstrated proficiency at rates that placed it in the top quartile among all schools in Pima County, a meaningful indicator given the county’s size. In mathematics, proficiency was strong across the tested grades, with a majority of students meeting the bar in every grade and especially high performance in fourth grade. Reading and English language arts results were similarly solid, with the highest marks in the fourth and sixth grades. In science, tested at the fifth-grade level, roughly half of students reached proficiency. For a family looking at this school, the pattern is one of above-average academic attainment across the board, with math showing an edge over reading in most grades.

The school serves a single elementary span, so there is no graduation rate to report, a reflection of the grade band rather than any missing or negative metric. Available data on academic trends is limited to a single year, making it impossible to gauge whether these results represent an upward or downward trajectory.

On the community and housing side, the school’s attendance area sits in a market where home values are well above the state average, and monthly mortgage costs considerably exceed typical rents. This is a relatively expensive corner of Tucson’s housing market, and the district’s tax base reflects that. In the most recent election, voters approved a budget override continuation that secures funding for full-day kindergarten, art, music, physical education, and class-size reduction. That measure had been in place for some time, and its renewal signals a community willing to invest in its schools.

The district also adopted a new English language arts curriculum for kindergarten through sixth grade, implemented in the 2023-2024 school year, which represents a recent shift in how reading and writing are taught at this school. For parents evaluating fit, Tanque Verde Elementary offers a high-performing academic environment in a suburban setting within a large city, with strong proficiency on state tests and voter-supported enrichment programs. A family moving to the area should be prepared for a higher-cost housing market and should also know that key demographic categories like economic disadvantage and special education identification rates are not publicly visible in the data reviewed here.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 373%

School 73% · District 73%

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

Grade 481%

School 81% · District 75% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 37 pts above state median · ▲ 35 pts above county median

Grade 560%

School 60% · District 55% · ▲ 5 pts above district

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

Grade 662%

School 62% · District 58% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 354%

School 54% · District 60% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

Grade 471%

School 71% · District 73% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Grade 561%

School 61% · District 58% · ▲ 3 pts above district

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

Grade 670%

School 70% · District 68% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 550%

School 50% · District 50%

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

This schoolTanque Verde Unified District (4408), 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.