What is the best school district in Arizona?

By 2025 state test scores, Catalina Foothills Unified near Tucson ranked first among Arizona districts with at least 5,000 students, with about 72% of students proficient in English language arts and 59% in math. Scottsdale Unified ranked second.

What is the best school district in the Phoenix area?

Scottsdale Unified had the highest 2025 test scores among large Phoenix-area districts, with about 65% of students proficient in English language arts and 60% in math. Higley, Chandler, Deer Valley, and Gilbert followed.

How were these Arizona districts ranked?

allk12 averaged each district's school-level 2025 AASA proficiency rates, weighting each school by its enrollment, and ranked districts by the average of English language arts and math. Only traditional districts with at least 5,000 students are included.

Best school districts in Arizona ranked by test scores: Catalina Foothills leads

Catalina Foothills Unified, near Tucson, posted the highest 2025 state test scores of any Arizona school district with at least 5,000 students. About 72% of its students scored proficient in English language arts and 59% in math, according to allk12's analysis of Arizona Department of Education data.

Scottsdale Unified ranked second, followed by Higley Unified, Vail Unified, and Chandler Unified. Statewide, about 46% of students were proficient in English language arts and 38% in math.

Arizona school districts ranked

Rank	District	Students	ELA proficient	Math proficient
1	Catalina Foothills Unified District	5,088	72.1%	59.0%
2	Scottsdale Unified District	20,682	64.8%	59.5%
3	Higley Unified School District	12,387	61.1%	55.9%
4	Vail Unified District	15,011	60.2%	55.5%
5	Chandler Unified District #80	41,421	60.2%	53.9%
6	Deer Valley Unified District	32,265	59.0%	51.3%
7	Gilbert Unified District	31,560	57.5%	51.6%
8	Paradise Valley Unified District	26,183	57.2%	50.7%
9	Amphitheater Unified District	11,277	56.4%	50.7%
10	Madison Elementary District	5,864	55.3%	50.8%
11	Queen Creek Unified District	15,065	55.2%	49.5%
12	Tempe Union High School District	11,726	53.6%	46.6%
13	Kyrene Elementary District	13,313	51.0%	44.5%
14	Litchfield Elementary District	10,755	48.9%	45.0%
15	Lake Havasu Unified District	5,228	46.1%	40.3%
16	Dysart Unified District	23,078	46.9%	39.2%
17	Peoria Unified School District	34,436	46.2%	39.3%
18	Glendale Union High School District	16,040	46.0%	35.7%
19	Humboldt Unified District	5,159	42.4%	37.4%
20	Sahuarita Unified District	6,335	44.0%	35.0%
21	Marana Unified District	12,845	42.0%	35.7%
22	Mesa Unified District	55,821	41.5%	33.4%
23	Tempe School District	10,045	38.5%	33.5%
24	Flowing Wells Unified District	5,225	38.8%	33.1%
25	Laveen Elementary District	8,111	38.7%	32.2%
26	Flagstaff Unified District	8,595	40.0%	27.3%
27	Agua Fria Union High School District	10,089	40.7%	26.2%
28	Nogales Unified District	5,696	38.2%	28.4%
29	Avondale Elementary District	6,000	37.3%	29.2%
30	Crane Elementary District	5,727	37.0%	29.2%
31	Washington Elementary School District	18,816	36.7%	29.2%
32	Buckeye Union High School District	5,650	37.5%	27.0%
33	Tucson Unified District	40,316	34.1%	28.5%
34	Gadsden Elementary District	5,196	30.7%	30.8%
35	Kingman Unified School District	6,996	31.4%	26.1%
36	Yuma Elementary District	9,102	30.9%	25.4%
37	Alhambra Elementary District	9,742	30.3%	25.7%
38	Buckeye Elementary District	6,221	28.6%	25.5%
39	Maricopa Unified School District	9,568	30.8%	22.4%
40	Pendergast Elementary District	8,098	30.3%	22.1%
41	Florence Unified School District	8,731	28.9%	21.7%
42	Glendale Elementary District	8,580	28.2%	21.5%
43	Littleton Elementary District	6,206	27.6%	19.1%
44	Roosevelt Elementary District	7,057	28.6%	17.5%
45	Sunnyside Unified District	13,979	24.9%	19.9%
46	Cartwright Elementary District	13,436	23.8%	20.9%
47	Yuma Union High School District	11,217	27.4%	15.7%
48	Tolleson Union High School District	13,931	23.4%	18.2%
49	Casa Grande Elementary District	6,630	23.9%	15.7%
50	Phoenix Union High School District	25,800	21.5%	15.4%

Traditional (non-charter) Arizona districts with at least 5,000 students. Proficiency is the share of students scoring proficient or highly proficient on the 2025 AASA tests, averaged across each district's schools and weighted by enrollment. Ranked by the average of the two subjects. Students is total 2024-25 enrollment. Source: allk12 analysis of Arizona Department of Education and NCES data.

What to keep in mind

Arizona has three kinds of traditional districts: unified districts that run kindergarten through 12th grade, elementary districts, and high school districts. They appear in the same table here, so an elementary district and a high school district are not a perfect comparison.

The list also leaves out charter schools. Several individual charter schools, including BASIS schools in Chandler, Phoenix, and Peoria, posted higher 2025 scores than any district above.

Each district's page on allk12 shows its demographics, schools, and scores by year.

Sources
Test results from allk12's analysis of Arizona Department of Education AASA data, 2025. Enrollment from National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data, 2024-25.

Best school districts in Arizona ranked by test scores: Catalina Foothills leads

Arizona school districts ranked

What to keep in mind

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