Summary:
ZIP code 85253 has four schools serving different grade spans: Cherokee Elementary School serves PK–5, Kiva Elementary School serves PK–6, and Scottsdale Country Day School and Montessori Academy serve K–8. All four are above the state’s 2025–26 all-grade proficiency rates, but results vary widely: the school-to-school spread is 31 percentage points in ELA and 47 points in math. The clearest overall finding is that Cherokee leads both subjects, with 80% proficient in ELA and 86% in math.
Cherokee is also well ahead of the other schools: its ELA result is 19 points above the other three schools’ average, and its math result is 29 points above their average. In fourth grade, Cherokee leads the schools with reported results at 87% in ELA and 85% in math, compared with 77% in both subjects at Kiva. Montessori has the lowest all-grade results, at 49% in ELA and 39% in math, though these are still 8 and 6 points above state rates. Scottsdale Country Day is in between, at 63% in ELA and 58% in math. Kiva’s standout is fifth-grade science: its 76% proficiency is 7 points above Cherokee’s 69%.
SchoolDigger ranks Cherokee at the 99th percentile in each of its three reported years; Kiva’s reported percentile moved from 97 to 94. Scottsdale Country Day’s latest listed percentile is 95, up from 88 in its earliest listed year, while Montessori’s went from 92 to 66 across its reported years. Ratios offer another point of comparison, not an explanation for results: Cherokee’s is 17.6 and Kiva’s is 15.2, while Montessori’s is the lowest at 11.8; Montessori also has the fewest students, 107, compared with 133 at Scottsdale Country Day. Because test scores are available for just one year, these results do not show whether achievement is improving or declining.
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