Sweetwater School, Glendale AZ - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Sweetwater School

Sweetwater School serves students from kindergarten through eighth grade as a regular public school within the Washington Elementary School District in Glendale. Glendale is a large suburban city bordering Phoenix, shaped by a mix of residential neighborhoods, major retail corridors, sports and entertainment venues, and industrial employers like Honeywell Aerospace and Conair. The city is also home to Luke Air Force Base and Midwestern University. Glendale’s built environment is largely auto-oriented, with walkable zones concentrated in Historic Downtown and the Westgate Entertainment District. The city is growing steadily, and its population has been rising in recent years, with development efforts focused on the western Yucca district around State Farm Stadium and Desert Diamond Arena.

Sweetwater School itself is a neighborhood school serving a diverse student body. Hispanic students make up the largest share of the enrollment, followed by white students, with smaller populations of students who are Black, two or more races, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Asian. The school’s enrollment is spread fairly evenly across grades kindergarten through eight, with the largest single grade at the eighth-grade level. Information on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch was not available in the data we reviewed, nor were data on the number of students with disabilities or English learners.

On state assessments, the school’s performance varies by grade and subject and is best understood as mixed. In math, proficiency rates are higher at some grade levels than others, with the strongest results seen at the fifth-grade level and notably lower rates at the seventh-grade level. In English language arts, a wider range is visible: the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades posted rates that were solidly in the mid-range, while fourth and fifth grades were lower. The third-grade math and ELA results were suppressed in the data we had, so we cannot report on them. In science, the school tested students at fifth and eighth grades; both grade levels showed rates that were similar to each other, though one was slightly higher. Compared to other school districts in Maricopa County, Sweetwater’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades sits above the midpoint among the county’s districts.

The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. No information was available on chronic absenteeism, discipline, or staffing, and a search for recent changes in the Washington Elementary School District did not turn up any major developments such as bond measures, overrides, or curriculum shifts that would be of immediate note to a parent.

For a family considering this school, the takeaway is a regular public elementary and middle school in a growing suburban city, with a diverse student body and performance on state tests that is neither uniformly strong nor uniformly weak. Parents may want to ask the school directly about particular grade-level outcomes, especially in math at the middle school level, and about how the school supports students across its full grade span. The absence of data on free or reduced-price lunch eligibility, special education, and English learner services means those are gaps worth filling through a conversation with the school office.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 435%

School 35% · District 32% · ▲ 3 pts above district

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

Grade 566%

School 66% · District 27% · ▲ 39 pts above district

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

Grade 642%

School 42% · District 26% · ▲ 16 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 725%

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

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 836%

School 36% · District 21% · ▲ 15 pts above district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 442%

School 42% · District 32% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 538%

School 38% · District 27% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 652%

School 52% · District 32% · ▲ 20 pts above district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 758%

School 58% · District 35% · ▲ 23 pts above district

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

Grade 853%

School 53% · District 31% · ▲ 22 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Science

Grade 535%

School 35% · District 25% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 837%

School 37% · District 22% · ▲ 15 pts above district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

This schoolWashington Elementary School District (4260), 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.