Summary:
ZIP code 85209 has two high schools serving grades 7–12 overall: Desert Ridge High serves grades 8–12 and enrolls 2,103 students, while Superstition High School serves grades 7–12 and enrolls 54. The clearest positive academic signal is at Desert Ridge, which is above state proficiency rates in every supplied ELA and math comparison; most importantly, the available results cannot establish which school performs better overall.
Desert Ridge stands out against the state, especially in grade 8: 68% were proficient in ELA versus 39% statewide, a 29-point advantage, and 54% in math versus 30%, a 24-point advantage. Its all-grades results were also above state rates—48% versus 41% in ELA and 43% versus 33% in math—but below Gilbert Unified District by 10 and 9 points, respectively. Its 11th-grade results were below district rates in both subjects, too. Graduation is another strength: 93% at Desert Ridge versus 80% statewide, a 13-point advantage. Its grade 11 science result is a counterpoint: 16%, 3 points below the state. Superstition cannot be placed at the top or bottom because its school-level test percentages are suppressed, so no valid two-school achievement ranking is available.
Desert Ridge’s SchoolDigger percentile ranking dipped from 55th in 2023–24 to 51st in 2024–25, then rose to 66th in 2025–26, a net gain of 11 percentile points; its rank moved from 121 of 270 schools to 86 of 256. This improvement in relative standing does not by itself show a multi-year rise in test scores. The schools also differ substantially in size and reported staffing ratios: Desert Ridge has 2,103 students and a 19.7 student–teacher ratio, compared with 54 students and 4.9 at Superstition. Those figures describe different school contexts but do not explain achievement results.
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