Nikolaus Homestead Elementary Demonstrates Great Improvement

The Arizona Department of Education is proud to celebrate Nikolaus Homestead Elementary School for their fantastic job of improving school culture and raising achievement. Since filling the role of principal two years ago, Chris Jones has set to work on improving the climate and culture of the building. The school's enrollment increased for the 2025-26 school year and most impressively, chronic absenteeism overall dropped from 27.6% to 8.5%. Parents are very happy with the changes, and the school is a much better place for their students to attend.

In terms of academics, the school has made significant gains. Data shows improvement in reading and math with growth between 8 and 30 points from the FY24 to the FY25 assessment across grades 3-5.

For students with disabilities, scores saw a jump from 20.89 to 25.89 on the AASA which allowed the school to exit federal identification for CSI-T and also 19 points in growth combined math and ELA from 2024 to 2025. While students with disabilities showed exceptional growth, most of the other subgroups also demonstrated good levels of growth. 

A pride point for the school is that it earned an A letter grade in fall of 2025. It has taken the hard work and dedication of the school staff to improve the climate and culture while raising the academic expectations including building the systems to improve instructional practices that shift the focus to learning.