Desert Sands Academy of Mass Communication & Journalism

As a reasonably sized 6-8 campus in PHOENIX, Arizona, Desert Sands Academy of Mass Communication & Journalism caters to 510 students from grades 6 through 8, run under Cartwright Elementary District (4282).

Within Cartwright Elementary District (4282), which oversees 22 schools and 13,436 students, Desert Sands Academy of Mass Communication & Journalism is one campus in the system.

On the student-mix side, Desert Sands Academy of Mass Communication & Journalism lists that 86% of students identify as Hispanic, making the school strongly Hispanic-majority. Other groups include 8% Black, 3% White. That is considerably more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 31%.

Looking at school resources, Staff filings list 28 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 18.6:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 17.8:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical.

In the area at large, community-level numbers for Maricopa County indicate the typical household earns roughly $89,300 per year, about 37% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and roughly 8% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Desert Sands Academy of Mass Communication & Journalism is one of 1352 public schools in Maricopa County (combined enrollment of about 725,139 students).

The closest other public school is Holiday Park School, roughly 0.4 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius.

The school occupies an urban site.

Over the past 7-year window. Desert Sands Academy of Mass Communication & Journalism's enrollment has decreased 52% since 2018, when it stood at 1,056 (now 510). Class-load math has tightened: from 20.3:1 in 2018 to 18.6:1 in 2025.

On allk12, posts here usually surface around classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. Members of the school community can share what they know.