The top reported proficiency rate is 35% in English language arts. The lowest is 22% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Desert Foothills Middle School
Desert Foothills Middle School serves seventh and eighth graders in the Washington Elementary School District, a regular public school set in the northern part of Phoenix. The school sits in a city that is a large, sprawling urban center, one of the fastest-growing in the nation, whose economy has shifted from its agricultural origins toward high-technology, manufacturing, tourism, and services. Phoenix’s built environment is car-oriented, with a flat grid of wide roadways, and the area around the school reflects that broader pattern of residential and commercial spread. Housing values in the zip code around the school have edged downward recently, and rents have also softened, making this part of the Phoenix market somewhat more accessible than many others in the metro area. The school belongs to a district for which publicly reported information about recent bonds, overrides, or curriculum changes was not readily available.
Desert Foothills has a moderate-sized enrollment for a two-grade middle school, with slightly more seventh graders than eighth graders. The student body is diverse. Hispanic students make up the largest group, followed by white students, and Black students make up a smaller share. There are also students who identify as two or more races, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. Data on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, receive special education services, or are English learners was not available in the source materials.
On state assessments, the school’s results fall below the midpoint relative to other schools and districts in Maricopa County. In English language arts, the share of students scoring proficient was below half in both seventh and eighth grades when last measured, with eighth-grade proficiency notably lower than seventh. In math, proficiency rates were lower still, with about one in five students reaching the proficient threshold in seventh grade and a slightly smaller share in eighth grade. Science results for eighth graders also showed that about one-quarter of students met proficiency. The available trend data, which covers only a few years, does not show a clear pattern of improvement or decline, though the most recent ELA result across grades was lower than an earlier reading.
Because this is a middle school serving only seventh and eighth grades, there is no high school graduation rate to report, nor data on chronic absenteeism or postsecondary outcomes.
A few contextual gaps are worth noting. The available data does not include information on the school’s course offerings, staffing ratios, or discipline rates. For a parent weighing this school, those are important pieces of context that are simply not present in the source records. The district itself has not surfaced recent strategic changes in publicly indexed materials. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and operates within the Washington Elementary School District, which serves a broad swath of north-central Phoenix. The city’s major civic anchors include Papago Park, South Mountain, the Phoenix Art Museum, and Chase Field, and its economy is anchored by sectors such as aerospace, electronics, and tourism. None of that context directly describes the school’s daily operation, but it gives a sense of the metro area a family would be living in.
For a family considering this school, the academic picture is the primary point of attention. Proficiency rates in both ELA and math are below the county median, and the gap is wider in math. A parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand what academic interventions or supports are in place, how the school addresses skill gaps between seventh and eighth grade, and what the trajectory looks like for students who move on to high school. The school’s diversity is a straightforward characteristic of the community it serves. The Phoenix housing market, while not inexpensive, has shown some modest softening that may open options for families looking in this corridor of the city. Without staffing, course access, or discipline data, the full picture of the school environment remains incomplete, and those are reasonable questions to ask directly of the school.
See more original research from School Decision →