Avenal Elementary: The score trails the state median. The trajectory doesn't.
Avenal still trails on raw proficiency — and it's climbing faster than most schools anywhere near it — and that holds when you follow the same students across grades.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 42 | 5% | 16% | +13.7 | 15.7% | 1.6% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Avenal Elementary scores 42 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 49th 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 →
📈 On the Rise — Ask how many years the improvement has held, not just the latest one — one strong cohort and a real turnaround can look identical in a single year of data.
Most rating sites would stop at “16% proficient” and call it done. Avenal deserves a closer read. The school sits in Avenal, where four in five students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
The headline number: +13.7pp 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.
The seven-year arc
Has stayed near the 49th percentile since 2019.
This school hasn't fully recovered from the pandemic: 16% meet the standard today, versus 21% in 2019 — a gap worth asking about on a visit.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 21% | 19% | 15% | 1% | 10% |
| Grade 4 | 17% | 20% | 19% | 17% | 10% |
| Grade 5 | 32% | 23% | 25% | 29% | 29% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 15% | 11% | 12% | 4% | 15% |
| Grade 4 | 15% | 14% | 18% | 10% | 11% |
| Grade 5 | 27% | 19% | 25% | 21% | 22% |
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 6.4pp across grades; the floor rises 19.8pp. 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 6 things our score weighs
Ask what changed — new curriculum, new principal, new program. Momentum has a cause, and a visit will find it.
- 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 Avenal Elementary in Avenal, 15.3% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 19.2% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Avenal Elementary trails its district average for low-income students by 3.9 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (14.9% Math proficient); Hispanic students (16.6% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 7.5 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 313 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 21.0pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +11.6pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
TK/K students miss school at roughly three times the rate of Grades 4–6 students (25.6% vs 9.3%). Chronic absence here concentrates in the earliest grades — worth asking how the school works with new families on attendance.
Where the path goes
The path below follows attendance boundaries — scores shown for each next step.
Feeder patterns derived from NCES attendance boundary data. Boundaries are approximate and may have changed — verify with your school district for current assignments.
The people teaching here
Pay is set by the district, not the school.
What gets spent here
$613 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
Transitional kindergarten is offered here — confirmed by actual Census Day enrollment, not just the listed grade span.
On the state's science test (CAST), 18% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Avenal Elementary a good elementary school?
What are Avenal Elementary's CAASPP test scores?
How does Avenal Elementary rank in California?
Is Avenal Elementary getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Avenal Elementary?
How does Avenal Elementary compare to other schools in Avenal?
How does Avenal Elementary serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby High Schools
2 within ~3 mi · avg 29
A low score doesn't tell the whole story. Read: Your School Scored Low — Here's What That Actually Means
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 | 114 | 6% | 4% | 19% | 71% | 10% | −34 |
| Grade 4 | 101 | 3% | 7% | 15% | 75% | 10% | −35 |
| Grade 5 | 112 | 13% | 17% | 29% | 42% | 29% | −18 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 115 | 1% | 14% | 23% | 63% | 15% | −31 |
| Grade 4 | 102 | 1% | 10% | 25% | 64% | 11% | −31 |
| Grade 5 | 112 | 7% | 15% | 29% | 49% | 22% | −13 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 112 | 5% | 13% | 63% | 19% |
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 | 313 | 15.3% | −4 | −23 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 314 | 16.6% | −4 | −22 |
| English Learners | 194 | 9.3% | +2 | −1 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avenal Elementary ← | — | 42 | 5.1% | 16.1% | +13.7 | 1.6% |
| Tamarack Elementary | 1.2 mi | 15 | 1.6% | 8.6% | −1.1 | 5.4% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 40 | 45 | #3018 | 6.7% | 21.0% | 6.0% | 2.5% | +11.3pp |
| 2022 | 31 | 36 | #3693 | 4.3% | 17.6% | 22.2% | 4.1% | +6.0pp |
| 2023 | 36 | 44 | #3214 | 6.0% | 18.9% | 21.9% | 6.6% | +11.7pp |
| 2024 | 36 | 35 | #3737 | 5.6% | 13.6% | 18.9% | 2.2% | +22.6pp |
| 2025 | 42 | 49 | #2953 | 5.1% | 16.1% | 15.7% | 1.6% | +13.7pp |
- — Low-income students here trail the state average for their group by 23 points in ELA — worth asking how the school is closing that gap.
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 3.6% | 13.7% | +10.1pp |
| Male | 7.9% | 17.4% | +9.5pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 5.9% | 15.6% | +9.7pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 13.6% | 25.0% | +11.4pp |
| English Learners | 4.8% | 12.5% | +7.7pp |
| Homeless | 7.1% | 19.2% | +12.1pp |
| Military-Connected | 4.2% | 29.7% | +25.5pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 5.7% | 15.9% | +10.2pp |
| All Students | 5.9% | 15.6% | +9.7pp |
| Asian | — | 21.4% | — |
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