Two-thirds of Tucson students fail AzMERIT for second year in row

For the second year in a row, about two-thirds of Tucson-area students failed to make the grade on the state’s AzMERIT test.

While the results continue to be less than stellar, Pima County schools and the state as a whole made slight gains on the test that measures students’ level of proficiency in math and English language arts (ELA).

The Arizona Department of Education released the performance of individual schools and districts this week, which showed 38 percent of students passing in both subject areas across the state — a gain of about 3 percentage points.

Pima County’s passing rate on the English language arts portion of the test was on par with the state average, with a 4 percentage point gain over the year prior.

The math passing rate of 35 percent was 2 percentage points higher than in 2015.

Here’s a look at how well Tucson’s district and charter schools are doing in preparing students to meet Arizona’s College and Career Ready Standards:

District Schools

Catalina Foothills was the highest performing of Tucson’s nine major school districts with nearly 70 percent of students passing AzMERIT.

Catalina Foothills, Vail, Tanque Verde, Amphitheater, Sahuarita and Marana surpassed the state passing rate on the ELA portion of the test. The same was true for the math test with the exception of Marana, which was 2 percentage points short.

Flowing Wells, TUSD and Sunnyside had the poorest performance, falling below the statewide passing average.

Here’s the district-by-district breakdown, in order of highest to lowest performance:

Catalina Foothills: 69 percent passed ELA, 68 percent passed math.

Vail: 58 percent passed ELA, 61 percent passed math.

Tanque Verde: 56 percent passed ELA, 57 percent passed math.

Amphitheater: 42 percent passed ELA, 38 percent passed math.

Sahuarita: 41 percent passed ELA, 38 percent passed math.

Marana: 41 percent passed ELA, 36 percent passed math.

Flowing Wells: 34 percent passed ELA, 32 percent passed math.

TUSD: 30 percent passed ELA, 27 percent passed math.

Sunnyside: 23 percent passed ELA, 20 percent passed math.

Charter Schools

As was the case last school year, Arizona charter schools exceeded the state’s average passing rate with 47 percent of charter students passing ELA and 44 percent passing math.

Here's how some of Tucson’s well-known charter schools performed:

Basis Schools: More than 80 percent of students passed AzMERIT.

Sonoran Science Academy: Across the various campuses, the percentage of students passing ranged between 44 to 59 percent.

Tucson Country Day School: 50 percent of students passed math, 51 percent passed ELA.

La Paloma Academy: Across the various campuses, the percentage of students passing ranged between 20 and 41 percent. 

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Academy of Math and Science: 62 percent of students passed ELA, 71 passed math.

Low-Income Children

Children from low-income families fared far worse on AzMERIT with only about a quarter of the 350,000 students tested across the state passing.

That performance is a few percentage points better than it was when the test was first given in 2015, but the achievement gap for low-income and minority students persists as is the case across the country.

In Pima County, the passing rate for low-income children was about the same — about a quarter of students were proficient in math and ELA, the remaining 75 percent did not meet the standards.

District schools served eight times as many low-income children than charter schools did.

English-Language Learners

About 33,000 students who are working toward becoming English speakers took AzMERIT across the state. Of those, only 2 percent passed the English language arts test and 5 percent passed math. The outcomes were the same for Pima County ELL students.

Higher populations of English-language learners are found in district schools than in charter schools.

Students with disabilities

The performance of students with disabilities declined by about 1 percentage point from the year prior with about 10 percent passing AzMERIT.

As is the case with low-income children, charter schools served significantly fewer children with disabilities than district schools did.

Latino Children

Despite making up the majority of students tested in Arizona, the percentage of Latino children who passed AzMERIT — about 28 percent — was lower than the state’s overall passing rate.

In TUSD, Tucson’s largest school district with a Hispanic population of about 64 percent, 26 percent passed the English Language Arts portion of the test and 23 percent passed math.

In Sunnyside, the second largest district with 83 percent of its student body made up by Hispanics, 22 percent passed ELA and 20 percent passed math.

Anglo Children

More than half of white students passed AzMERIT. Anglo students make up the second largest racial population in Arizona’s public schools. In Pima County, 53 percent passed ELA and 51 percent passed math.

African American Children

Across the state, nearly 26,000 African American children took the AzMERIT test but only about a quarter passed. The outcomes were the same locally.

Native American Children

About 85 percent of Native American students tested failed to meet the state’s standards on AzMERIT. In Pima County, 17 percent passed ELA and 15 percent passed math — an improvement from 2015 when 14 percent passed ELA and 13 percent passed math.

Asian Children

Pima County’s Asian students had the highest performance of the various ethnic populations with more than 60 percent passing AzMERIT. They make up less than 2 percent of Arizona’s public school population.

What you won't find

Private and independent schools do not take AzMERIT so there are no scores for those schools. 

The Arizona Department of Education also does not provide scores for very small schools in an effort to protect student privacy.