2026 Arizona letter grades are out: Percentage of schools getting D’s or F’s rises

The 2026 Arizona school letter grades have been released, and the percentage of public schools rated D or F climbed in the last year.

When schools get D or F grades, the Arizona Department of Education or the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools works directly with them to improve their results.

Each year, the Arizona Department of Education assigns letter grades of A through F based on criteria such as academic proficiency, state assessment results, attendance and graduation rates.

In 2025, 4% of the K-8 schools graded landed in the D or F category. That figure climbed to 6.7% this year.

For high schools, the rate of D or F schools jumped from 1.8% last year to 8% in 2026.

Sean Smith, chief accountability officer with the state Department of Education, said there is more movement within the system that cannot be identified by the percentages.

“Essentially, what you see is movement of schools. You’ll see a lot of schools trading places but not a lot of movement overall in the number of schools in each category,” he said.

Arizona school letter grade system being restructuring

This year’s school grades are the last under the current evaluation system.

The Arizona Department of Education and the State Board of Education are  working to overhaul the grading system due to the large percentage of Arizona schools receiving A grades.

In 2026, 30.4% of K-8 schools were given A’s, while 39.4% of high schools landed the top grade.

So far, the board has voted to remove bonus points from the letter grade system, a change that could cause 10% of schools to see their grades drop.

Smith said the change is expected to impact the number of A or B grades.

“We anticipate a decrease just based on the modeling we’ve done … because the criteria, the individual indicators, how they’re getting graded, those do have some substantial changes,” he said.

Other changes to the school grading system will be made before next year’s grades are released.

In July, a report from the Arizona Auditor General found that the system does not accurately communicate school performance due to a lack of information about the criteria and differences between schools.

The report noted that the system allows schools to earn high marks by excelling in other areas without demonstrating academic proficiency.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne told KTAR News 92.3 FM in July that he plans to propose that no school receive an A if students test low in academic proficiency.

Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.

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