Arizona Connections Academy
GILBERT · AZ · Arizona Connections Academy Charter School Inc. (87407) · Public charter · K-12 combined
📄 Shareable scorecard →📋 At a glance
- 📚 21 AP courses offered — Elite
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🔢 6 calculus classes · 2 physics · 4 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 82th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 16% by test-taker volume
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 52% (Bottom 10% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Arizona Connections Academy compares for families
Stronger-than-average college-prep profile.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor in the top 18% nationally with 21 AP courses.
- ▸ LocallyAZ sits right at the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math — local school quality will set your kid apart.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: American Leadership Academy Gilbert North K-12, Benjamin Franklin High School, Mesquite High School and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
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🎓 Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Elite — exceptional AP + advanced course breadth
82th percentile nationally
✅ Gifted/talented program
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). CRDC reports what's offered + enrolled — it doesn't collect AP exam pass rates (College Board owns that data and doesn't release it school-level).
SAT / ACT participation
CRDC federal data · 2020-21Bottom 16% by test-taker volume
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). Volume — not score — is what's reported here. A higher count means more students at this school are entering the college admissions pipeline. Note: 2020-21 was COVID-disrupted; some districts (especially those that stayed remote longer) report unusually low or zero takers.
🎓 4-year graduation rate · federal EDFacts
What % of students graduate on time?
Bottom 10% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate
Source: federal EDFacts ACGR (Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate), 2019 vintage via Urban Institute. EDFacts publishes a range (low-high) to preserve privacy on small cohorts; we display the midpoint.
👩🏫 Teacher workforce · federal CRDC
Teacher experience & reliability
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2017-18 — the most recent vintage that publishes per-school teacher quality fields; the 2020-21 sweep had them suppressed). "Inexperienced" = teachers in their first or second year. "Chronic absence" = teachers absent 10+ days/year.
🏛️ Your state's public flagship
University of Arizona
The in-state tuition gap is the flagship's biggest draw — most in-state families pay far less than the out-of-state sticker. Average net price after aid runs about $16,674/yr. Admission odds depend on your student's GPA and test scores, not which high school they attend.
Source: IPEDS admissions, tuition & enrollment + College Scorecard net price. Flagship = the state's primary public research university.
Counselor capacity
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020-2021. Counselor ratio = the school's most recent total enrollment ÷ counselor FTE. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends a 250:1 maximum; the US national median across schools with on-staff counselors is roughly 430:1.
Enrollment trend & projection
Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).
If the recent trend holds…
At its recent rate of -15.2%/year, projecting from 2024's 1,891 students:
≈ 1,062 fewer students by 2029 — a real revenue/relevance risk worth getting ahead of.
An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.
Revenue at risk
At $8,081 per student in district revenue, the 1,062 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $8,582,022/year in funding at risk.
District total revenue ÷ enrollment, NCES F-33. Public funding largely follows enrollment, so a shrinking class is a recurring budget hit.
Most similar nearby high schools
The schools most like this one — same type, blended on distance and size — and where their enrollment is heading. These are the schools families here weigh against each other.
| School | Type | Miles | HS enrollment | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Leadership Academy Gilbert North K-12 GILBERT |
Public · charter | 5.1 | 915 | -16.1% |
| Benjamin Franklin High School Queen Creek |
Public · charter | 6.2 | 811 | +15.5% |
| Mesquite High School GILBERT |
Public | 5.0 | 1,303 | -7.7% |
| Heritage Academy Gateway Queen Creek |
Public · charter | 7.3 | 582 | +27.9% |
| Campo Verde High School GILBERT |
Public | 1.4 | 1,863 | -4.3% |
| American Leadership Academy of Applied Technologies Mesa |
Public · charter | 6.8 | 432 | +57.1% |
| Higley High School GILBERT |
Public | 4.9 | 2,005 | -7.8% |
| BASIS Chandler CHANDLER |
Public · charter | 4.3 | 361 | -4.2% |