Tucson Standard

In the 2023-24 school year, 80% of 7,084 Sunnyside Unified District students failed their AASA/ACT Language Arts test, according to the Arizona Department of Education.

The students who took the AASA/ACT were assessed at four proficiency levels in each subject. Those at proficiency level one and two failed the test, while students who reached the third and fourth proficiency level passed the test.

Of those who failed, most achieved proficiency level one.

Beki Quintero Governing Board President | Sunnyside Unified School District website

Sunnyside Unified District roughly covers schools within Pima County and has a main office in Tucson.

A 2023 study from Scholaroo ranked Arizona last out of all U.S. states in terms of educational success, giving the state poor marks for school quality, student success, and teacher-to-student ratio.

Additionally, WalletHub also claimed Arizona’s school system ranked among the worst across U.S. for class size, performance, funding, safety, and instructors’ credentials.

Some data provided by the Arizona Department of Education may be incomplete due to the Family and Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

School Name	% Who Failed	Number of students tested
STAR Academic High School	> 90%	44
Challenger Middle School	89%	555
Drexel Elementary School	87%	294
Sierra 2-8 School	86%	618
Los Ninos Elementary School	86%	263
Summit View Elementary	86%	243
Sunnyside High School	84%	478
Desert View High School	83%	458
Apollo Middle School	83%	493
Santa Clara Elementary School	82%	217
Rivera Elementary School	81%	242
Mission Manor Elementary School	81%	254
Billy Lane Lauffer Middle School	81%	442
Craycroft Elementary School	80%	300
Liberty Elementary School	77%	289
Esperanza Elementary School	76%	244
Los Amigos Elementary School	75%	366
Gallego Intermediate Fine Arts Magnet School	68%	765
Gallego Primary Fine Arts Magnet	63%	151
Elvira Elementary School	62%	368