[7] In 2022, Desert Vista received an "C" rating from the Arizona Department of Education with the highest score of any traditional, non-magnet high school.

[9] Desert Vista is an Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) member school offering boys and girls sports complying with Title IX.

[14] [better source needed] Desert Vista High School has been at the center of several controversies since its opening that have garnered local, national, and even international media attention.

[15] McDonald allegedly approached the teachers after being asked by then-Tempe Union High School District Superintendent James Buchanan to see what can be done to help the student.

[15] School district administrators admitted four years later, in 2005, that grades were changed for the softball student-athlete two months after her graduation, after which she was cleared by the National Collegiate Athletic Association to play at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi.

Arizona school districts have no power to determine rehire eligibility, as only the state's Board of Education has the authority to suspend or revoke a person's teaching credentials.

Mary Thomas, and US Attorney Paul Charlton, which resulted in sensitivity training for faculty and the creation of a Native American Club on campus.

[23][25] In 2005, reports surfaced that the school's former football coach, Jim Rattay, was accused by female students of engaging in unprofessional conduct.

[26] According to a report compiled by district officials, Rattay, in one incident, asked a 14-year-old female student to walk to the front of the class, and read, out loud, passages from a pamphlet about teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

[26] School district officials, in their report, claimed that an investigation of Rattay found "insufficient evidence" to support allegations of sexual harassment.

[36] In 2019, the school once again found itself at the center of a racism controversy, after a tweet made by a Twitter account titled "Desert Vista Senior Prank" implied that graduating seniors will pretend the front gate to the high school is the border into Mexico,[37] with "cops searching cars, window washers, and people selling tortillas.

The teacher had replied multiple times with threatening messages to an automated mass-messaging system asking for an RSVP to the Turning Point rally at a Tempe hotel, and was subsequently placed on administrative leave by TUHSD.

[40] The district released an official statement stating that it "does not tolerate or condone any form of threats or harassment made by employees or students.