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Mesa, Arizona - 77 schools
An equity score of 52/100 ranks Mesa Unified District (4235) #105 of 437 districts in Arizona (state average 38). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $11,160 per pupil, Mesa Unified District (4235) ranks #291 of 634 Arizona districts by per-pupil spending (Arizona districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
58,343
Total Enrollment
77
Schools
$11,160
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Mesa Unified District (4235) operates 77 public schools serving 58,343 students, placing it among the larger districts in Arizona. The school portfolio breaks down into 60 combined, 8 middle, 7 high, 2 elementary schools, giving families a clear picture of grade-band coverage across a sizeable portfolio before they move, rent, or enrol. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Maricopa County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $11,160 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 634 Arizona districts by per-pupil spending. See how Arizona compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 37.4% local, 44.5% state, and 18.1% federal, a balanced mix across local, state, and federal sources, spreading budget risk across funding cycles rather than concentrating it in one. The district's equity score is 52/100, ranked #105 of 437 in Arizona against a state average of 38, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 6 of 77 schools offering Advanced Placement (92 AP courses district-wide), a 389.1:1 student-counselor ratio, well above the ASCA benchmark though still under the roughly 408:1 national average, and 47.5% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 48.5% Hispanic or Latino, 36.3% White, 4.8% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Washington Elementary School, with a diversity index of 72.8/100.
Its largest campus is Mountain View High School, enrolling 3,421 students (6% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Early Education Center, at 77 students, a 44x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Mesa Unified District (4235) school enrollment varies 44× across entities
Mesa Unified District (4235) school enrollment ranges from 77 students (lowest) to 3,421 students (highest), a spread of 3,344 students. That ratio is among the widest observed and reflects extreme enrollment heterogeneity, the district operates both small specialty programs and large comprehensive campuses inside a single budgeting unit. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Mesa Unified District (4235) student-counselor ratio is 389:1 — high (typically associated with staffing constraints that limit per-student counselor time; CRDC data shows higher ratios cluster in larger urban systems)
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment, districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.
Mesa Unified District (4235) chronic absenteeism rate is 47.5% — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Values this far above typical often signal acute resource constraints or a structurally different scale than most peers — worth reading alongside the underlying counts, not the ratio alone.