Williams Elementary/middle School, Williams AZ

Original Research by School Decision on Williams Elementary/middle School

Williams Elementary/Middle School serves students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in a single building within the small, tourism-driven town of Williams, Arizona. The school is the only elementary and middle school in the Williams Unified District, and it sits at the base of Bill Williams Mountain, a short drive from the historic downtown Route 66 core. The community is economically centered on tourism as the self-styled gateway to the Grand Canyon, with the U.S. Forest Service, ranching, and a resurgent timber industry also providing local jobs. Housing in the Williams area is valued slightly above the national average, reflecting the town’s limited supply and its appeal as a base for outdoor recreation. The town is stable and slow growing, with no large-scale new developments identified in publicly available sources. The district itself has no recent parent-relevant changes such as bonds, referendums, or curriculum shifts on record.

Williams Elementary/Middle enrolls a moderate number of students across all grades from pre-K through eighth, with each elementary and middle school grade roughly similarly sized. The student body is nearly evenly split between white and Hispanic students, with a small share of Native American, Black, Asian, and multiracial students. Data on the share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, receiving special education services, or classified as English learners was not available, so it is not possible to assess the school’s concentration of economic or academic need from this information. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and federal Title I status was not reported.

Academically, state assessment results for the most recent year show a mixed picture. In math, the share of students meeting proficiency standards spanned from roughly a quarter of fifth graders to just over two-fifths of seventh graders, with most grades falling in the range of about a quarter to a third proficient. In English language arts, proficiency rates were a bit higher, with the strongest years being third and seventh grade, where slightly more than two-fifths of students met the bar, while fourth, fifth, and eighth grades were closer to a third or below. Science results for fifth grade were below a third proficient; eighth-grade science results were suppressed, likely because the tested group was small. The school’s combined proficiency index across all tested grades and subjects places it below the midpoint when compared to other districts in Coconino County. Only a single year of assessment data was available, so there is no basis to describe an upward or downward trend.

Because the school serves only through eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to report. Similarly, data on discipline, attendance, and staffing are not available in the provided information. A parent may want to ask the school directly about chronic absenteeism and how the school supports students who are below proficient.

The setting in Williams is car dependent outside the compact six-block historic downtown. Students who live in the town can walk to school only if they live nearby; most families will drive or rely on busing. The school is part of a small district with a single high school just up the road, so students who continue in the district will feed into Williams High School. For families who work in tourism or the public sector and value a rural, low-key community with quick access to national forest and Grand Canyon recreation, Williams Elementary/Middle offers a straightforward, neighborhood-school experience. The academic results suggest that a family considering this school would want to understand what supports are available for students who are not yet at grade level, especially in math and in the middle grades.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 340%

School 40% · District 40%

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

Grade 435%

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

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

Grade 526%

School 26% · District 23% · ▲ 3 pts above district

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

Grade 629%

School 29% · District 26% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 7 pts below state median

Grade 741%

School 41% · District 39% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 9 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 343%

School 43% · District 43%

▲ 3 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 432%

School 32% · District 29% · ▲ 3 pts above district

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

Grade 529%

School 29% · District 27% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

Grade 636%

School 36% · District 36%

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 743%

School 43% · District 41% · ▲ 2 pts above district

even with state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 831%

School 31% · District 30% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 9 pts below state median

Science

Grade 527%

School 27% · District 27%

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

This schoolWilliams Unified District (4193), 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.