Isaac Elementary District - EdTribune AZ - Arizona Education Data

1 in 10 Arizona Students Is Now an English Learner

Fri, 22 May 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Part of the Arizona Enrollment Series. Updated weekly.

Arizona added 19,501 English learner students between 2021-22 and 2025-26. Over the same four years, the state lost 59,272 students overall. That divergence pushed the English learner share past 10% of total enrollment for the first time in 2024-25, a threshold it held in 2025-26 at 10.3%.

Then, in 2025-26, the count fell. Arizona recorded 110,548 English learners, down 2,977 from the prior year's peak of 113,525. It was the first annual decline in the four-year window during which the state tracks this subgroup. Whether the dip reflects reclassification exits, immigration enforcement effects, or normal fluctuation is not yet clear. What is clear: the structural shift in who Arizona's schools serve has already happened.

The four-year surge

The scale of the growth is difficult to overstate. In 2021-22, Arizona enrolled 91,047 English learners across 1,132,803 total students, an 8.0% share. By 2024-25, the count had climbed to 113,525 out of 1,099,529, a 10.3% share. The 21.4% increase in EL enrollment happened against a 5.2% decline in total enrollment. No other student subgroup grew at anything close to that pace.

The growth was front-loaded. The single largest annual gain came in 2022-23, when 11,672 new EL students appeared in the data, a 12.8% year-over-year jump. Growth slowed to 3.1% the following year, then re-accelerated to 7.2% in 2024-25 before the 2025-26 reversal.

One way to gauge how much of this reflects new arrivals versus broader identification of existing students: EL enrollment as a share of Hispanic enrollment rose from 17.1% in 2021-22 to 20.9% in 2025-26. Hispanic enrollment itself was essentially flat over this period (532,421 to 528,122). That ratio shift, nearly four percentage points, is faster than immigration alone would explain, suggesting that expanded screening or slower reclassification is contributing alongside new enrollment.

The data cannot distinguish between a student who arrived from another country and a student who was already enrolled but newly identified as an English learner. Both appear identically in the EL count. This is a fundamental limitation: a 21% surge could be driven entirely by new arrivals, entirely by identification changes, or by some combination. The most likely answer is both, in unknown proportions.

The districts absorbing the load

Half of Arizona's English learners attend school in just 20 districts. The top 10 alone account for 38,077 EL students, 34.4% of the statewide total, though they enroll a much smaller share of Arizona's overall student body.

Mesa Unified District leads with 6,378 EL students, 12.0% of its enrollment. Tucson Unified District follows at 5,034, or 12.9%. But the districts where EL students constitute the largest share of the student body are smaller, inner-ring Phoenix elementary districts and border communities that operate with far fewer total resources.

Cartwright Elementary District, a west Phoenix district, enrolls 4,622 EL students, 36.5% of its 12,665 total. Isaac Elementary District is at 44.8%. Alhambra Elementary District reached 35.6%, up from 25.8% in 2021-22, a 9.9 percentage-point climb in four years.

At the border, Gadsden Elementary District near San Luis now enrolls more EL students than non-EL: 53.0% of its 5,109 students are classified as English learners.

The Yuma corridor doubled

The most striking district-level shift is at Yuma Union High School District. In 2021-22, 911 of its 11,035 students were English learners, an 8.3% rate. By 2025-26, that count had nearly doubled to 1,799, pushing the EL share to 16.3%. Unlike the inner-ring Phoenix districts, where high EL rates have been the norm for decades, Yuma Union's transformation happened in a compressed window.

The Yuma corridor as a whole shows sustained growth. Somerton Elementary went from 33.9% to 41.0% EL. Yuma Elementary rose from 15.3% to 18.3%. These are border districts where cross-border enrollment and new immigration flow directly into the school system.

Arizona's English-only paradox

These students enter a policy environment unlike any other state's. Arizona is the only state that still mandates structured English immersion under Proposition 203, passed in 2000, which requires English learners to receive instruction primarily in English with limited native-language support. The law has survived two and a half decades while California and Massachusetts repealed their similar measures.

The outcomes are stark. In 2024, 4% of English learners passed the state ELA assessment and 7% passed math, compared to 42% and 34% for all students. The EL graduation rate stands at 55%, 22 points below the statewide 77%.

"It's terrible. It's the worst thing you could do to kids. It really truly is." — Virginia Collier, George Mason University researcher, on Arizona's English-only approach, AZ Luminaria, Nov. 2024

Tucson Unified has pushed against the grain, operating dual language programs at 12 schools where students reportedly outperform mainstream peers in English language arts and math. A legislative effort to repeal Proposition 203's statutory framework, H.C.R. 2021, proposed replacing the English-only model with research-based dual-language options. It was held in committee.

The staffing equation

More EL students require more specialized instruction, and Arizona's teacher pipeline is already depleted. More than 1,000 teachers left the profession since July 2025, with over 4,000 positions covered by long-term substitutes or other part-time arrangements and nearly 1,400 completely vacant. The state does not publish EL-specific vacancy data, but districts where a third or more of students are English learners face the additional challenge of finding certified staff with structured English immersion endorsements.

The instructional programs these students receive carry higher per-pupil costs than general education, including smaller class sizes during immersion blocks, AZELLA testing administration, and monitoring for two years after reclassification. In a state where total enrollment is falling and per-pupil funding follows students out the door, the districts with the fastest-growing EL populations are often the ones losing the most total enrollment.

A broader structural shift

English learners are not the only service population growing as Arizona's overall enrollment contracts. Special education enrollment rose from 144,496 (12.8%) in 2021-22 to 153,898 (14.3%) in 2025-26, a 6.5% increase. The two categories overlap: students can be both English learners and special education recipients, and the data does not permit separating them cleanly. But the directional signal is clear.

Arizona's schools are not simply getting smaller. They are getting smaller and more complex. The students who remain are, on average, more likely to need instructional programs that cost more per pupil than general education. That structural mismatch, fewer students generating less base funding alongside growing demand for specialized services, is the fiscal reality that follows from these enrollment trends.

The 2025-26 dip

The 2,977-student drop in EL enrollment in 2025-26 deserves careful interpretation. Three mechanisms are plausible. First, reclassification: students who passed the AZELLA proficiency assessment in spring 2025 would exit EL status. A strong reclassification year could reduce the count without any change in arrivals. Second, immigration enforcement: the Department of Homeland Security ended its "sensitive locations" policy in January 2025, removing the longstanding restriction on ICE activity near schools. Arizona educators have reported attendance drops and family withdrawals in districts with high immigrant populations. Third, the dip could simply be statistical noise after four years of rapid growth.

The inner-ring Phoenix districts that drove much of the statewide growth also drove the 2025-26 decline. Alhambra Elementary lost 446 EL students, Cartwright lost 344, Mesa Unified lost 297, and Phoenix Union lost 285. Whether those students were reclassified, moved, or stopped attending is not visible in the enrollment snapshot.

The next year's data will clarify whether 2025-26 was a plateau or a turning point. If immigration enforcement continues to intensify, the EL count may fall further, not because fewer students need language services but because fewer families feel safe sending their children to school.

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.

Four Districts Lost 14,882 Students in Eight Years

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Part of the Arizona Enrollment Series. Updated weekly.

The Isaac Elementary District is under state receivership. The Glendale Elementary District has closed five schools in two years. The Alhambra Elementary District just voted to shutter two more campuses. The Cartwright Elementary District has lost students every single year since at least 2018.

These four districts sit in a contiguous band across west and central Phoenix, serving some of the city's most heavily Hispanic, lowest-income neighborhoods. Together they enrolled 49,151 students in 2017-18. By 2025-26, that number had fallen to 34,269, a loss of 14,882 students, or 30.3%. Arizona as a whole lost 3.5% over the same period.

Four districts account for 38.0% of the state's entire enrollment decline.

The steepest falls

Isaac's trajectory is the most severe. The district lost 38.1% of its enrollment, falling from 6,798 to 4,210 students. It shed 694 students in 2025-26 alone, a 14.2% single-year drop that exceeded every prior year except the pandemic crash of 2020-21. Glendale Elementary lost 34.3%, falling from 12,513 to 8,220. Alhambra lost 26.9%, and Cartwright, the largest of the four at 12,665 students, lost 26.8%.

All four are in unbroken decline streaks stretching back to at least 2018. In no year during this period did any of the four add students, with one exception: Isaac gained 67 students in 2024-25 before losing 694 the following year.

The combined year-over-year losses show a pattern that should unsettle planners. After the pandemic cratered enrollment by 4,116 in 2020-21, the pace appeared to moderate: losses of 1,314 in 2021-22, then 1,958 and 1,177 in subsequent years. But 2025-26 reversed the easing. The four districts shed 2,266 students, the second-worst year on record, behind only COVID.

Who is leaving

These are overwhelmingly Hispanic communities. Isaac's student body is 92.2% Hispanic. Cartwright is 90.7%. Alhambra is 79.3%, and Glendale is 73.3%. The combined Hispanic enrollment across the four districts fell from 40,448 to 28,667, a loss of 11,781 students, or 29.1%.

The districts also serve high concentrations of students whose instructional programs carry elevated per-pupil costs. In 2025-26, 85.4% of Isaac's students were classified as economically disadvantaged, along with 90.0% of Alhambra's, 79.7% of Cartwright's, and 64.4% of Glendale's. (Arizona's statewide economically disadvantaged rate jumped from 36.1% to 51.9% between 2024 and 2025 due to a Community Eligibility Provision reporting change, so these district-level figures may be inflated by the same methodological shift.) English learners make up 44.8% of Isaac's enrollment and 36.5% of Cartwright's, well above the state average.

Each departing student carries funding with them. Alhambra Superintendent Cecilia Maes told KTAR that the district loses approximately $12,000 for every student who leaves. At that rate, the combined 14,882-student loss across the four districts represents a funding reduction approaching $178 million annually compared to 2017-18 levels.

A pipeline that keeps shrinking

Kindergarten enrollment is the leading indicator for elementary districts. Across the four districts combined, kindergarten fell from 4,851 in 2017-18 to 3,058 in 2025-26, a 37.0% decline. In every year, fewer kindergartners entered these districts than eighth graders left them, a structural deficit that guarantees continued erosion even if the kindergarten count stabilizes.

The gap between the two lines is the annual enrollment the districts cannot replace. In 2025-26, 3,058 kindergartners entered while 3,904 eighth graders graduated out, a net pipeline deficit of 846 students before accounting for any mid-year departures or transfers.

Closures and receivership

The enrollment decline has forced building closures across all four districts, but Isaac's situation is the most acute. In January 2025, the Arizona State Board of Education placed Isaac under state receivership after the district overspent by an estimated $22 million and misrepresented its finances to the Arizona Department of Education. The Maricopa County Treasurer cut off funding until debts were resolved, and teachers worked three days without pay before emergency measures restored operations.

State-appointed receiver Keith Kenny ordered the closure of Moya Elementary and P.T. Coe Elementary despite the governing board's vote against it:

"I've found the board to be irresponsible fiscally in voting not to close the two schools." -- Keith Kenny, state-appointed receiver, KJZZ, May 2025

Kenny estimated that restoring solvency would take five to 10 years. The district took a $25 million loan from Tolleson Union High School District at 6% interest, pledging Isaac Middle School as collateral.

Glendale Elementary has closed five schools in two years, including Coyote Ridge, Imes, and Sine elementary schools. In 2021, the district's assistant superintendent of finance said Glendale would need to grow by about 4,000 students, sustained for nine years, to change course. Instead, enrollment fell from 10,418 in 2020-21 to 8,220 in 2025-26.

Alhambra voted in early 2026 to close Valencia Newcomer Academy and Choice Learning Academy after the 2025-26 school year. Valencia, a school established in 2018 to serve immigrant and refugee students with English language instruction, had dwindled to just 22 students. The closures will save $1.4 million, but Superintendent Maes acknowledged the shortfall is much larger:

"The fact is, our shortfall is much greater than that. And so, we've looked at other creative ways of utilizing our staff, adjusting our staffing..." -- Cecilia Maes, Alhambra superintendent, KTAR, Feb. 2026

Multiple forces, one outcome

No single factor explains a 30% enrollment loss in eight years. District leaders across the Valley consistently point to three converging pressures: declining birth rates dating to the 2008 recession, housing affordability that has pushed young families out of older neighborhoods, and competition from charter schools and Arizona's Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) voucher program.

The birth rate explanation has some structural support. The children entering kindergarten in 2025-26 were born in 2019-20. Maricopa County birth rates have declined since 2007, and the Phoenix metro area's population growth is now driven almost entirely by migration rather than natural increase. But migration does not distribute evenly. Newer families tend to settle in outer-ring suburbs, while the older, denser neighborhoods these four districts serve are not the destination of choice.

The ESA program is a subject of fierce debate. A Common Sense Institute Arizona report argued in 2024 that demographic shifts, not vouchers, primarily drive the decline. But the program has grown rapidly, with nearly 89,000 students using ESAs and annual costs exceeding $1 billion. Whether ESA students are leaving these specific inner-ring districts or come disproportionately from other areas is not clear from enrollment data alone.

Charter school competition is another factor that enrollment data cannot cleanly separate. Arizona has no charter flag in its state enrollment files, making it impossible to track sector-level shifts with precision. The state has approximately 580 charter schools enrolling an estimated 232,000 students, but which districts those students would otherwise attend is unknown.

What enrollment data can show is that these four districts are not merely shrinking at the state average rate. They are declining eight to 10 times faster than Arizona as a whole. Something specific to these neighborhoods, whether it is housing costs, school quality perceptions, program competition, or demographic turnover, is compounding the statewide trend.

The downstream question

These four districts are PK-8 feeders. Their graduates flow primarily into Phoenix Union High School District, which peaked at 27,898 students in 2022-23 and has since lost 4,328 students, a 15.5% decline in three years. The shrinking pipeline from the inner-ring elementary districts means Phoenix Union's losses are likely to deepen.

Across Arizona, more than 20 public schools closed or began closing in 2025, spanning districts from Roosevelt (five schools) to Kyrene (six schools) to Scottsdale (two schools). Beth Lewis, executive director of Save Our Schools Arizona, called it "an unprecedented clip of school closures." The four inner-ring districts examined here are at the epicenter of that wave, but the closures are rippling outward.

The kindergarten pipeline ensures these districts will continue to shrink. How many buildings can close, how many staff positions can be cut, and how many consolidations can happen before the remaining schools are too far from the families they serve to function as neighborhood institutions — that is the practical problem Isaac's receiver and Alhambra's superintendent are trying to solve right now.

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.