Summary:
Queen Creek Unified District has 15 schools: nine elementary, two middle, three high and one alternative school, serving students from elementary through high school. Across the nine elementary schools, math proficiency averaged above state results in every reported grade from 3 to 6, by 23–28 percentage points; the average advantage was 25 points, compared with 18 points in ELA. The most important takeaway is that elementary math is a district strength, but results vary considerably from school to school.
Katherine Mecham Barney Elementary led elementary schools in All Grades ELA and math, with 78% and 81% proficiency—37 and 48 points above state results. Frances Brandon-Pickett Elementary also stood out in math at 70%, 37 points above the state. For middle grades, Newell Barney College Preparatory School reported 87% ELA and 78% math. At the other end, Queen Creek Virtual Academy reported 24% ELA and 15% math, 17 and 18 points below state results. Science varies by grade: fifth graders at Katherine Mecham Barney scored 75%, compared with 34% statewide, while grade 11 science scores at the three high schools ranged from 10% to 14%, below the state’s 19%.
SchoolDigger rankings improved for many schools, although that does not show whether test-score gaps with the state narrowed. Among schools with comparable rankings, the average statewide percentile rose from 75th in 2023–24 to 82nd in 2025–26; Newell Barney moved from 204th of 550 middle schools to 9th of 536, while Frances Brandon-Pickett rose from 233rd of 912 schools to 105th of 900. Student–teacher ratios do not provide a simple guide to results: Newell Barney’s was 9.9, compared with 22.4 at Katherine Mecham Barney, while the Virtual Academy’s was 66.2 and its results were low. The data include only one year of proficiency results, and free/reduced-lunch figures are blank.
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