Arizona ESA growth raises new questions about student achievement

By Stacy Mantle
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Arizona spends public education dollars on more than 100,000 students participating in the state's Empowerment Scholarship Account program, but comparing their academic performance with students in district and charter schools is difficult — and in many cases impossible — because the groups do not participate in the same statewide assessment system.

District and charter school students take state-mandated assessments that provide Arizona with a common set of academic-performance data.

ESA students generally are not required by the program to take statewide achievement tests. Families may use ESA funds to pay for nationally standardized norm-referenced assessments and other eligible exams, but those tests measure achievement differently and are not administered to all ESA students.

The difference has become part of a broader debate over academic accountability as the ESA program has grown.

The call for accountability

Some Arizona policymakers and education advocates argue that a program supported with public dollars should provide the state and taxpayers with a way to measure academic outcomes.

ESA supporters counter that imposing state standards and testing requirements would undermine the educational flexibility the program was designed to provide. 

But some Arizona lawmakers have sought to impose greater academic accountability on the ESA program.

In 2026, Sen. Eva Diaz, D-Tolleson, introduced Senate Bill 1691, which would have required certain private schools receiving ESA funds to administer Arizona's statewide assessment unless they met specified accreditation requirements. The bill also would have required curriculum and instructional materials purchased with ESA funds to incorporate state academic standards.

Gov. Katie Hobbs has also called for greater accountability in the ESA program, although her proposals have extended beyond academic testing.

“Every school receiving taxpayer dollars must have basic standards to show they’re keeping our students safe and giving Arizona children the education they deserve,” Hobbs said when announcing an ESA accountability plan.

Supporters of ESA reject state asssessments

Supporters of the ESA model argue that imposing state assessments could undermine the flexibility the program is intended to provide, particularly for families using private schools, home-based education, microschools and other alternative education models.

The Center for Arizona Policy opposed 2026 proposals that would add testing and other requirements affecting some ESA participants, arguing that the changes would represent “a fundamental shift in the relationship between the state and the families who chose to leave the traditional system.”

“Parents who sought freedom from one-size-fits-all education would find themselves answering to government-approved standards, government-approved curricula, and government-approved tests,” the organization wrote.

Different tests, different results

The debate is not simply about whether ESA students should be tested. It is also about whether results from the different assessments already being used can be meaningfully compared.

AASA, or Arizona's Academic Standards Assessment, measures how well public school students in grades 3-8 have mastered Arizona's academic standards in English language arts and mathematics. Nationally norm-referenced assessments, which ESA families may choose to purchase, generally compare a student's performance with that of a national sample.

Both can provide information about academic achievement, but the results cannot simply be treated as interchangeable.

Nicole Kersting, a University of Arizona professor of educational psychology and statistics, said the different assessments do not currently provide a reliable way to compare the performance of ESA students with district and charter school students.

“The simple answer is no conclusions can be drawn between all three groups,” Kersting said.

Even converting the results into standardized z-scores would not solve the problem unless the different assessments had first been statistically equated, she said.

That means the absence of comparable statewide ESA data should not be interpreted as evidence that ESA students are performing either better or worse than their public-school peers. Rather, the available data do not allow such a statewide comparison to be made.

As ESA participation continues to grow, Arizona policymakers face a fundamental question over whether the lack of a common academic measure is an intentional feature of educational choice or an accountability gap that needs to be addressed.

Editor’s note:   A grant from the Arizona Local News Foundation made this story possible. The foundation awarded 15 newsrooms to pay for solutions-focused education reporters for two years. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.

Stacy Mantle
Education Solutions Reporter

smantle@iniusa.org

Meet Stacy
Stacy Mantle is joining the team at Independent Newsmedia, Inc. as an Education Solutions journalist, thanks to a grant from the Arizona Community Collaborative. She has a long history in education that ranges from teaching junior high and middle school to developing curriculum and standards-based assessments.

Community: A longtime advocate for animal welfare, Stacy is deeply involved in rescue efforts and volunteers with several nonprofit organizations.

Random Fact: Once upon a time, she shared her home with a pet coyote and two wolf hybrids. The experiences were wild enough to become the subject of her first book!

Education: She holds a BA in English with a minor in Political Science, a Post-baccalaureate in Secondary Education, and an MBA with a emphasis on Marketing.

Hobbies: In her spare time, Stacy writes fast-paced urban fantasy novels, crafts small-batch artisan soap, and is always up for hiking or off-roading through the Arizona wilderness with her husband of 23 years.