Buena Vista/ Horace Mann K-8: The scores are below where anyone wants them. Here's what they don't tell you.
Buena Vista/ Horace Mann K-8 posts low test scores — and grade 5 tests above grade 3 here this year, by 4.8pp. If this is your zoned school, the numbers below are where to start a conversation, not where to end one.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 31 | 7% | 19% | +4.8 | 29.8% | 1.1% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Buena Vista/ Horace Mann K-8 scores 31 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 19th 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 “19% proficient” and call it done. Buena Vista/ Horace Mann K-8 deserves a closer read. The school sits in San Francisco, where three in five students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
Test scores are one lens, and at this school they're a rough one right now. The sections below show the fuller picture — including the parts that are working.
The seven-year arc
Slipped from the 54th to the 19th percentile since 2019.
This school hasn't fully recovered from the pandemic: 19% meet the standard today, versus 29% in 2019 — a gap worth asking about on a visit.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 34% | 17% | 12% | 15% | 11% |
| Grade 4 | 23% | 25% | 15% | 30% | 29% |
| Grade 5 | 42% | 32% | 21% | 23% | 24% |
| Grade 6 | 28% | 22% | 39% | 25% | 26% |
| Grade 7 | 52% | 37% | 50% | 42% | 25% |
| Grade 8 | 20% | 41% | 42% | 41% | 35% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 22% | 15% | 22% | 16% | 16% |
| Grade 4 | 20% | 23% | 20% | 18% | 20% |
| Grade 5 | 30% | 21% | 15% | 12% | 13% |
| Grade 6 | 14% | 17% | 25% | 8% | 9% |
| Grade 7 | 42% | 21% | 31% | 33% | 18% |
| Grade 8 | 29% | 32% | 15% | 17% | 23% |
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 6 things our score weighs
Ask what changed in the last two years, and what the school is asking families for. Growth shows up in these numbers a year or two after it shows up in classrooms.
- Ask how the school follows up when a student starts missing days — chronic absence often starts outside the classroom, not inside it.
- 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 Buena Vista/ Horace Mann K-8 in San Francisco, 19.4% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 38.8% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Buena Vista/ Horace Mann K-8 trails its district average for low-income students by 19.4 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (12.1% Math proficient); Hispanic students (22.4% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 22.2 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 258 students tested.
6 of 13 student groups here are too small to report — a privacy protection, not a gap.
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 8.7pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +9.2pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
TK/K students miss school at roughly twice the rate of Grades 7–8 students (34.9% vs 19.5%). 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
$395 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
On the state's science test (CAST), 13% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Buena Vista/ Horace Mann K-8 a good elementary school?
What are Buena Vista/ Horace Mann K-8's CAASPP test scores?
How does Buena Vista/ Horace Mann K-8 rank in California?
Is Buena Vista/ Horace Mann K-8 getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Buena Vista/ Horace Mann K-8?
How does Buena Vista/ Horace Mann K-8 compare to other schools in San Francisco?
How does Buena Vista/ Horace Mann K-8 serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 76
Private alternatives nearby
Private schools within ~10 miles. These schools do not participate in state testing and cannot be scored or ranked.
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 | 61 | 7% | 5% | 18% | 70% | 11% | −32 |
| Grade 4 | 63 | 10% | 19% | 5% | 67% | 29% | −16 |
| Grade 5 | 68 | 6% | 18% | 15% | 62% | 24% | −24 |
| Grade 6 | 62 | 8% | 18% | 19% | 55% | 26% | −21 |
| Grade 7 | 60 | 10% | 15% | 28% | 47% | 25% | −23 |
| Grade 8 | 62 | 13% | 23% | 26% | 39% | 35% | −11 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 64 | 5% | 11% | 22% | 63% | 16% | −30 |
| Grade 4 | 66 | 8% | 12% | 20% | 61% | 20% | −22 |
| Grade 5 | 68 | 6% | 7% | 13% | 74% | 13% | −22 |
| Grade 6 | 66 | 3% | 6% | 20% | 71% | 9% | −26 |
| Grade 7 | 61 | 8% | 10% | 21% | 61% | 18% | −16 |
| Grade 8 | 62 | 11% | 11% | 15% | 63% | 23% | −10 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 131 | 4% | 9% | 56% | 31% |
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 | 258 | 19.4% | −19 | −19 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 343 | 22.4% | −3 | −16 |
| English Learners | 207 | 2.9% | −5 | −8 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buena Vista/ Horace Mann K-8 ← | — | 31 | 6.7% | 18.7% | +4.8 | 1.1% |
| Chinese Immersion School at DeAvila | 1.7 mi | 88 | 59.2% | 81.0% | +25.6 | 0.1% |
| Clarendon Alternative Elementary | 2 mi | 70 | 48.7% | 71.9% | −2.3 | 0.5% |
| Grattan Elementary | 1.8 mi | 70 | 42.4% | 71.8% | +11.5 | 0.3% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 44 | 54 | #2507 | 14.7% | 28.6% | 13.2% | 0.0% | +7.8pp |
| 2022 | 33 | 42 | #3323 | 5.5% | 22.1% | 44.7% | 1.5% | +10.8pp |
| 2023 | 34 | 38 | #3528 | 7.5% | 17.5% | 36.4% | 0.9% | +0.8pp |
| 2024 | 31 | 20 | #4596 | 5.9% | 19.3% | 29.6% | 0.6% | +1.6pp |
| 2025 | 31 | 19 | #4662 | 6.7% | 18.7% | 29.8% | 1.1% | +4.8pp |
- — Scored here as an elementary school — other grade spans appear in the data appendix.
- — Low-income students here trail the state average for their group by 19 points in ELA — worth asking how the school is closing that gap.
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 14.2% | 30.3% | +16.1pp |
| Male | 12.2% | 31.2% | +19.0pp |
| Filipino | 20.6% | 28.6% | +8.0pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 13.5% | 31.5% | +18.0pp |
| Two or More Races | 11.8% | — | — |
| Students with Disabilities | 22.6% | 45.2% | +22.6pp |
| English Learners | 14.7% | 34.1% | +19.4pp |
| Homeless | 29.6% | 42.1% | +12.5pp |
| Military-Connected | 14.3% | — | — |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 15.7% | 34.0% | +18.3pp |
| All Students | 13.2% | 30.7% | +17.5pp |
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