Alvina Elementary Charter: Kids show up here. Test scores are still catching up.
Alvina Elementary Charter's strongest numbers are the quiet ones: attendance and discipline. The academic picture is still developing — and culture is usually where that starts.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 57 | 13% | 41% | +0.5 | 10.6% | 0.3% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Alvina Elementary Charter scores 57 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 78th percentile of 5,744 California elementary schools (CDE CAASPP 2025).
Measures test performance, attendance, and climate — not arts, community, or your kid. How we score →
🤝 Culture First — Ask whether the low absenteeism and suspension numbers come from what the school does or from the community it serves — both can produce the same numbers, and only a visit tells you which.
Most rating sites would stop at “41% proficient” and call it done. Alvina Elementary Charter deserves a closer read. The school sits in Caruthers, where four in five students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
The headline number: +0.5pp separates this year's grade 3 from its grade 5. The state average rises 4.5pp over the same span. Following the same students from 2023 G3 → 2025 G5 points the same way.
As a charter, Alvina Elementary Charter enrolls by application rather than address. That changes how you get in, but it doesn't change the score.
The seven-year arc
Climbed from the 55th to the 78th percentile since 2019 — past roughly 1300 elementary schools.
Proficiency here is back to its pre-pandemic level — 41% meet the standard, about where the school stood in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 28% | 47% | 5% | 30% | 47% |
| Grade 4 | 65% | 41% | 71% | 16% | 35% |
| Grade 5 | 46% | 33% | 22% | 50% | 50% |
| Grade 6 | 57% | 68% | 52% | 22% | 63% |
| Grade 7 | 61% | 37% | 62% | 55% | 22% |
| Grade 8 | 32% | 43% | 50% | 68% | 70% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 32% | 37% | 30% | 40% | 32% |
| Grade 4 | 43% | 35% | 47% | 47% | 55% |
| Grade 5 | 25% | 17% | 6% | 31% | 30% |
| Grade 6 | 52% | 32% | 29% | 17% | 50% |
| Grade 7 | 56% | 32% | 62% | 65% | 17% |
| Grade 8 | 37% | 35% | 39% | 41% | 40% |
The story this school is actually telling
The school, grade by grade
ELA · CAASPP 2024–25Different students, same year — each bar is one grade's proficiency mix.
The honest read: the share exceeding rises 9.5pp across grades; the floor rises 2.6pp. The state average rises 4.5pp over the same span. Kids here gain ground the longer they stay — the pattern you want to see. A school visit and conversation with teachers will tell you more than this number.
The 5 things our score weighs
Ask how the school built its attendance culture — and what the academic plan looks like from here.
- Ask how teachers track each child's growth over the year, not just where the class lands on test day.
- Ask whether the tour can step into a working classroom — watch how the teacher handles a student who's stuck.
- Ask to tour while school's in session, and notice how hallways and transitions feel — culture shows up between classes, not just in them.
- Ask how the school communicates with families when a child starts to struggle.
- Ask what a typical day looks like for a new student in the first few weeks.
How every group of students does here
At Alvina Elementary Charter in Caruthers, 42.7% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 42.7% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Alvina Elementary Charter outperforms its district average for low-income students by 0.0 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (33.3% Math proficient); Hispanic students (45.6% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 4.5 percentage points for low-income students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 96 students tested.
Change in proficiency from the lowest tested grade — which groups gain ground the longer they stay. Groups with fewer than 10 tested students per grade are not shown.
Low-income student ELA proficiency rises by 25.0pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +25.0pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
The people teaching here
What gets spent here
$863 per student arrives as federal Title funding — a measure of concentrated need, not school quality.
The district's current expense of education per student, from CDE's annual SACS filing — the freshest district spending figure the state publishes.
District-level, from the district's own SACS general-ledger filing — school-by-school breakdowns aren't published by the state.
Source: NCES F-33 · Full district breakdown →
The neighborhood it serves
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates (2024) · ZIP-level
At 169 students, this school is much smaller than the typical California elementary school (≈480).
Transitional kindergarten is offered here — confirmed by actual Census Day enrollment, not just the listed grade span.
On the state's science test (CAST), 28% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Alvina Elementary Charter a good elementary school?
What are Alvina Elementary Charter's CAASPP test scores?
How does Alvina Elementary Charter rank in California?
Is Alvina Elementary Charter getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Alvina Elementary Charter?
How does Alvina Elementary Charter compare to other schools in Caruthers?
How does Alvina Elementary Charter serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Every number on this page
Score factors, grade-level breakdowns, subgroup proficiency, and peer comparisons.
| ELA | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 19 | 11% | 37% | 21% | 32% | 47% | +4 |
| Grade 4 | 20 | 20% | 15% | 20% | 45% | 35% | −10 |
| Grade 5 | 20 | 20% | 30% | 30% | 20% | 50% | +2 |
| Grade 6 | 16 | 25% | 38% | 31% | 6% | 63% | +16 |
| Grade 7 | 18 | 11% | 11% | 39% | 39% | 22% | −25 |
| Grade 8 | 20 | 15% | 55% | 25% | 5% | 70% | +24 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 19 | 0% | 32% | 37% | 32% | 32% | −14 |
| Grade 4 | 20 | 15% | 40% | 25% | 20% | 55% | +13 |
| Grade 5 | 20 | 15% | 15% | 50% | 20% | 30% | −5 |
| Grade 6 | 16 | 25% | 25% | 25% | 25% | 50% | +15 |
| Grade 7 | 18 | 11% | 6% | 22% | 61% | 17% | −17 |
| Grade 8 | 20 | 30% | 10% | 45% | 15% | 40% | +8 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 40 | 5% | 23% | 68% | 5% |
CAST is tested in grades 5, 8, and once in high school — not annually. Not part of the Scope Score.
| Subgroup · ELA | Tested | MET+ | vs district | vs CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 96 | 42.7% | +0 | +4 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 103 | 45.6% | +0 | +7 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alvina Elementary Charter ← | — | 57 | 13.4% | 41.5% | +0.5 | 0.3% |
| Caruthers Elementary | 2.3 mi | 44 | 17.6% | 42.9% | −13.7 | 2.5% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 44 | 55 | #2496 | 17.4% | 39.9% | 7.0% | 0.5% | +5.4pp |
| 2022 | 30 | 34 | #3775 | 13.9% | 35.1% | 20.7% | 0.5% | -17.1pp |
| 2023 | 32 | 33 | #3854 | 9.6% | 30.1% | 21.7% | 2.1% | -3.6pp |
| 2024 | 37 | 38 | #3541 | 8.9% | 35.7% | 8.6% | 1.2% | +5.6pp |
| 2025 | 57 | 78 | #1245 | 13.4% | 41.5% | 10.6% | 0.3% | +0.5pp |
- — Scored here as an elementary school — other grade spans appear in the data appendix.
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 8.2% | 6.4% | -1.8pp |
| Male | 5.5% | 10.6% | +5.1pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 6.2% | 9.8% | +3.6pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 9.1% | 10.5% | +1.4pp |
| English Learners | 3.4% | 12.2% | +8.8pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 8.0% | 10.4% | +2.4pp |
| All Students | 6.8% | 8.7% | +1.9pp |
SchoolScope scores and verdicts are our interpretation of public California Department of Education data — independent analysis, not an official rating. How we analyze · Request a correction