Best Public Schools in Zip Code 85327

ZIP code 85327 has seven schools: three elementary schools, one middle school, one high school and two alternative schools, serving students from elementary grades through high school. The latest AASA results are from 2025–26, and the area’s five schools with reported all-grades scores average 63% proficiency in ELA and 59% in math, compared with state rates of 41% and 33%. But results vary considerably: all-grades proficiency ranges from 55% to 74% in ELA and 45% to 75% in math, so the most important takeaway is that strong area-wide results do not mean every school or grade performs equally well.

Horseshoe Trails Elementary School is the clearest academic standout, with the area’s highest reported all-grades scores—74% in ELA and 75% in math—and fifth-grade proficiency of 78% in both subjects, 40 percentage points above the state in each. Black Mountain Elementary School is also strong at 69% ELA and 68% math and exceeds state rates in all six reported grade-and-subject comparisons for grades 3–5. At the other end, Desert Willow Elementary School has 55% ELA and 45% math; its fifth-grade math score of 36% is 2 points below the state and 42 points below Horseshoe Trails. Cactus Shadows High School stands out in grade 11, with 61% proficiency in both subjects—23 points above the state in ELA and 30 points above in math—and a 2024–25 graduation rate of 96%.

SchoolDigger’s rankings edged upward overall, but not at every school: the average percentile for five schools with rank histories rose from 81 in 2023–24 to 82 in 2025–26, while Desert Willow fell 19 percentile points to the 65th percentile. These are ranking changes, not changes in test proficiency. School characteristics do not tell the whole story: Desert Willow’s student–teacher ratio is 14.7:1, lower than Black Mountain’s 15.5:1 and Horseshoe Trails’ 17.7:1, yet its scores are lower; its fifth-grade science score of 54% also exceeds the state rate by 20 points. All-grades AASA results are suppressed for both alternative schools, and free/reduced-lunch rates are not provided.