Porfirio H. Gonzales Elementary School, Tolleson AZ

Original Research by School Decision on Porfirio H. Gonzales Elementary School

Porfirio H. Gonzales Elementary School serves students from preschool through eighth grade in the Tolleson Elementary District. It is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and sits in the city of Tolleson, Arizona, a small industrial hub in the West Valley of the Phoenix metropolitan area.

The school enrolls a large student body for its grade band, with enrollment spanning prekindergarten through eighth grade. The student population is overwhelmingly Hispanic, with smaller shares of Black, white, and multiracial students, and very small numbers from other racial and ethnic backgrounds. Free and reduced-price lunch counts and special population data such as English learner and special education rates were not available in the data provided.

State assessment results for the 2024-25 school year give a mixed picture that parents will want to examine closely. In English language arts, proficiency rates across grades 3 through 8 were low overall, with a modest uptick in grade 7 where roughly half of students met the state's proficiency standard. The other grades showed rates that were substantially lower. In math, reported results for grade 3 and grade 8 also showed low proficiency rates; results for grades 4 through 7 were suppressed, which often occurs when group sizes are too small to report, though the tested counts for those grades indicate sizable groups, so the suppression may follow a different state rule. Science results for grade 5 and grade 8 were reported, and both were low. When combining all tested subjects and grades into an overall proficiency index, the school sits below the midpoint relative to districts in Maricopa County. The school does not serve high school grades, so no graduation rate applies. Chronic absenteeism data was not reported.

The school sits within the city of Tolleson, a compact community of about six square miles that functions primarily as an industrial and distribution employment center for the larger Phoenix region. The city hosts a high concentration of Fortune 500 companies, distribution centers, and food processing plants, giving it one of the highest jobs-to-residents ratios in the country. The day-to-day character of Tolleson is shaped by major transportation corridors -- Interstate 10, State Route 85, and the Union Pacific Railroad -- which create a vehicle-oriented landscape with little traditional walkable street life. The city has grown modestly in population over recent decades while its employment base has expanded more dramatically.

Housing values in the area around the school are modestly below the statewide figure, and rents have seen a slight recent decline, consistent with a working-class community that has not seen the same residential price pressure as other parts of the Phoenix metro. The district itself appears to have undergone no major recent changes in curriculum, facilities, or governance based on publicly available information; the data search found little of lasting impact.

Overall, Porfirio H. Gonzales Elementary offers a full pre-K through eighth grade pathway in a school whose academic proficiency levels are low compared with other Maricopa County districts. The student body is large and heavily Hispanic, reflecting the community it serves. The city of Tolleson is an industrial employment center with a small-town feel but limited pedestrian amenities, and the housing market is relatively affordable for the region. Families considering this school may want to investigate the reasons behind the suppressed test results in several math grades and look into what student support programs are available, as those details were not part of this data.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 334%

School 34% · District 32% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Grade 831%

School 31% · District 19% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 316%

School 16% · District 22% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 24 pts below state median · ▼ 28 pts below county median

Grade 416%

School 16% · District 32% · ▼ 16 pts below district

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

Grade 525%

School 25% · District 21% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Grade 623%

School 23% · District 25% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Grade 745%

School 45% · District 37% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 833%

School 33% · District 30% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Science

Grade 516%

School 16% · District 19% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

Grade 826%

School 26% · District 24% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

This schoolTolleson Elementary District (4264), 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.