Tempe Elementary Online Community, Tempe AZ

Original Research by School Decision on Tempe Elementary Online Community

Tempe Elementary Online Community serves kindergarten through eighth grade as a regular public school under the Tempe School District. It is an online program, meaning that instruction happens remotely rather than in a physical school building. The school is a public, non-charter entity, and its grade band stops at eighth grade, so there is no high school graduation rate to report.

The school is very small, with an enrollment that makes it a tiny program within the larger district. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with a smaller share of students who identify as two or more races. Because the enrollment is small, many student-level data points such as counts of English learners and students receiving special education services were not available. A parent should expect that the school likely serves families who have chosen a fully online format for elementary and middle school, and the peer group is correspondingly small.

State assessment results from the most recent testing year are available for some grade levels, though several metrics were suppressed due to the small number of test-takers, which is typical when a school has very few students in a grade. In the grades where results were reported, proficiency rates in math and English language arts were below the statewide average. In third grade math, for example, proficiency was at a level that is on the lower end compared to schools across the state. Fifth grade English language arts showed a higher share of students meeting proficiency than the school's math results. Science results, available for fifth and eighth grades, also fell on the lower side. Across all tested subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency index sits in the bottom quartile relative to other districts in Maricopa County.

No data on chronic absenteeism or discipline was available. Course access and staffing information were also absent from the record. Because this is an online school, student support structures, daily attendance tracking, and teacher-student ratios likely operate differently than in a brick-and-mortar setting, but no specific details were provided here.

The school is located in Tempe, an inner suburb of Phoenix that is heavily shaped by Arizona State University's main campus. The northern part of Tempe is densely developed, with high-rise buildings along Tempe Town Lake, the pedestrian-oriented Mill Avenue entertainment district, and the Valley Metro light rail line connecting the city to Phoenix and Mesa. Southern Tempe is less dense, with single-family homes, strip malls, and office parks. Major employers include Arizona State University, State Farm, JPMorgan Chase, and several corporate headquarters including GoDaddy, First Solar, and Circle K. The city has grown steadily, with Tempe Town Lake spurring commercial and residential development. The housing market is relatively expensive, with home values above the national typical level and rents that are also on the higher side. The area has a mix of older and newer neighborhoods, and the university presence gives the city a young, student-oriented feel in its core.

The Tempe School District does not appear to have undergone any major recent changes that were captured in publicly available records. The district brief found little of lasting impact in terms of policy shifts, curriculum overhauls, tax measures, or referendums in the last few years.

For a family considering this school, the core characteristics are straightforward. This is a very small, fully online public elementary and middle school option within Tempe. The online format means no daily commute to a physical campus, which suits some families. The academic results on state assessments are modest. The peer group is tiny, which may limit the range of social interaction or extracurricular options that a larger school would offer. A parent considering this program would want to learn more about the details of the daily schedule, how live instruction works, what curricula are used, and what support the school provides for students who need extra help, as the assessment data did not paint a full picture of the learning environment. The surrounding community of Tempe is a well-established, growing city with a strong university presence, ample retail and entertainment, and a mix of dense urban and suburban areas, but the school itself operates online, so the community context matters less for day-to-day attendance than it would for a traditional school.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 322%

School 22% · District 31% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 512%

School 12% · District 30% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▼ 30 pts below state median · ▼ 34 pts below county median

Grade 614%

School 14% · District 14%

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 26 pts below county median

Grade 722%

School 22% · District 15% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Grade 815%

School 15% · District 19% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 322%

School 22% · District 30% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 436%

School 36% · District 26% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 544%

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

▲ 3 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 638%

School 38% · District 28% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 721%

School 21% · District 35% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 830%

School 30% · District 34% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Science

Grade 520%

School 20% · District 31% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Grade 820%

School 20% · District 22% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

This schoolTempe School District (4258), 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.