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Tucson, Arizona - 88 schools
An equity score of 61/100 ranks Tucson Unified District (4403) #57 of 437 districts in Arizona (state average 38). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $11,545 per pupil, Tucson Unified District (4403) ranks #266 of 634 Arizona districts by per-pupil spending (Arizona districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
41,511
Total Enrollment
88
Schools
$11,545
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Tucson Unified District (4403) operates 88 public schools serving 41,511 students, placing it among the largest districts in Arizona. The school portfolio breaks down into 73 combined, 11 middle, 2 high, 2 elementary schools, giving families in a major system a clear picture of grade-band coverage across a large 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 Pima County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $11,545 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 41.8% local, 34.7% state, and 23.6% 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 61/100, ranked #57 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 11 of 88 schools offering Advanced Placement (139 AP courses district-wide), a 353.8:1 student-counselor ratio, well above the ASCA benchmark though still under the roughly 408:1 national average, and 67.4% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 63.2% Hispanic or Latino, 18.7% White, 7.6% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Doolen Middle School, with a diversity index of 72.8/100.
Its largest campus is Tucson Magnet High School, enrolling 2,938 students (7% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Mary Meredith K-12 School, at 17 students, a 173x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Tucson Unified District (4403) school enrollment varies 173× across entities
Tucson Unified District (4403) school enrollment ranges from 17 students (lowest) to 2,938 students (highest), a spread of 2,921 students. That ratio is an extreme outlier spread — among the widest gaps observed anywhere in this dataset. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Tucson Unified District (4403) has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 60.8% of the population qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch
free or reduced-price lunch eligibility is the federal threshold for Title I funding allocations, established under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015). Areas above 75% eligibility receive concentration grants on top of the basic Title I formula. Regions with eligibility this high typically draw a substantially larger federal funding share relative to their local tax base, which can either offset or reinforce existing gaps depending on allocation policy.
Tucson Unified District (4403) student-counselor ratio is 354:1 — 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.
Tucson Unified District (4403) chronic absenteeism rate is 67.4% — 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.
Comparisons are relative to Tucson Unified District (4403)'s own figures; each column derives from NCES Common Core of Data and the F-33 Finance Survey.
Nearby Districts in Arizona
Top districts in the same state, compare side-by-side for enrollment, spending, and demographics.