C L Smith Elementary: Most kids here clear the bar, year after year. The question is what happens after that.
C L Smith posts 60% meeting the standard, and 36.2% going well past it. Most kids here keep up. Fewer get pushed further. Ask the school what it does for a child who already finds the work easy.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 59 | 36% | 60% | -5.6 | 19.5% | 0.8% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
C L Smith Elementary scores 59 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 81st 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 →
🌱 Building Momentum — This label means the data doesn't clearly sort the school one way or the other — ask what the school is proud of, and what it's working on.
Most rating sites would stop at “60% proficient” and call it done. C L Smith deserves a closer read. The school sits in San Luis Obispo, where two in five students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
C L Smith's low-income kids hit 48.9% proficiency in ELA — a number the same group reaches at 38.2% statewide. If you're trying to read past zip-code-driven test scores, that's the signal worth weighing.
The seven-year arc
Climbed from the 25th to the 81st percentile since 2019 — past roughly 3000 elementary schools.
The pandemic drop is behind this school: 60% of students meet the standard today, above the 52% who did in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 59% | 60% | 55% | 57% | 67% |
| Grade 4 | 48% | 59% | 51% | 59% | 61% |
| Grade 5 | 49% | 54% | 61% | 70% | 69% |
| Grade 6 | 77% | 56% | 55% | 66% | 65% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 67% | 53% | 58% | 70% | 58% |
| Grade 4 | 61% | 54% | 48% | 55% | 59% |
| Grade 5 | 28% | 43% | 47% | 65% | 44% |
| Grade 6 | 43% | 53% | 49% | 48% | 49% |
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 falls 4.2pp across grades; the floor rises 2.3pp. The state average rises 4.5pp over the same span. A school visit and conversation with teachers will tell you more than this number.
C L Smith's most underrated number
48.9% of low-income students met the ELA standard — versus 38.2% for the same group statewide. That's the strongest kind of signal a school can post: it holds across income lines.
The 6 things our score weighs
Ask how the school challenges kids who clear the standard early. The gap between meeting and exceeding is where pacing shows.
- Ask what changes between grade 3 and grade 5 here, and who teaches the older kids.
- Ask whether extra support — tutoring, counseling, small groups — reaches kids across income lines, not just the students already ahead.
- 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 C L Smith Elementary in San Luis Obispo, 48.9% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 50.2% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. C L Smith Elementary trails its district average for low-income students by 1.3 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (35.5% Math proficient); White students (83.9% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 32.2 percentage points for disabilities students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 139 students tested.
9 of 16 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 3.2pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +5.9pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
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
These measure different things: this figure is spending attributed to this campus, while district-wide figures also include central administration, districtwide programs, and the state's pension contributions made on the district's behalf — costs that never get assigned to a single school. The district number runs higher at nearly every school, not just this one.
$2,188 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), 50% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is C L Smith Elementary a good elementary school?
What are C L Smith Elementary's CAASPP test scores?
How does C L Smith Elementary rank in California?
Is C L Smith Elementary getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at C L Smith Elementary?
How does C L Smith Elementary compare to other schools in San Luis Obispo?
How does C L Smith Elementary serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 50
Nearby High Schools
2 within ~3 mi · avg 46
Private alternatives nearby
Private schools within ~10 miles. These schools do not participate in state testing and cannot be scored or ranked.
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 | 69 | 48% | 19% | 17% | 16% | 67% | +23 |
| Grade 4 | 59 | 36% | 25% | 17% | 22% | 61% | +16 |
| Grade 5 | 71 | 44% | 25% | 15% | 15% | 69% | +21 |
| Grade 6 | 69 | 36% | 29% | 13% | 22% | 65% | +19 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 69 | 29% | 29% | 20% | 22% | 58% | +12 |
| Grade 4 | 59 | 32% | 27% | 14% | 27% | 59% | +18 |
| Grade 5 | 72 | 29% | 15% | 32% | 24% | 44% | +9 |
| Grade 6 | 70 | 33% | 16% | 26% | 26% | 49% | +14 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 72 | 17% | 33% | 42% | 8% |
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 | 139 | 48.9% | −1 | +11 |
| White | 124 | 83.9% | +7 | +22 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 102 | 45.1% | +1 | +6 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C L Smith Elementary ← | — | 59 | 36.2% | 59.7% | −5.6 | 0.8% |
| Pacheco Elementary | 2.4 mi | 55 | 28.4% | 52.3% | −16.4 | 0.7% |
| Bishop's Peak Elementary | 2.4 mi | 54 | 38.0% | 67.0% | +2.0 | 2.6% |
| Hawthorne Elementary | 1.8 mi | 42 | 31.7% | 51.8% | −7.2 | 4.6% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 33 | 25 | #4121 | 25.9% | 51.9% | 13.7% | 3.1% | -24.3pp |
| 2022 | 43 | 66 | #1951 | 28.6% | 53.7% | 31.4% | 1.7% | -8.4pp |
| 2023 | 50 | 73 | #1558 | 29.2% | 53.4% | 26.3% | 3.0% | -2.3pp |
| 2024 | 66 | 89 | #649 | 39.0% | 62.7% | 18.5% | 1.0% | +3.7pp |
| 2025 | 59 | 81 | #1088 | 36.2% | 59.7% | 19.5% | 0.8% | -5.6pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 14.5% | 17.1% | +2.6pp |
| Male | 13.0% | 22.2% | +9.2pp |
| Asian | 6.3% | 16.7% | +10.4pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 12.6% | 25.7% | +13.1pp |
| Two or More Races | 12.9% | 8.6% | -4.3pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 17.3% | 29.8% | +12.5pp |
| English Learners | 5.8% | 18.1% | +12.3pp |
| Homeless | 26.8% | 29.8% | +3.0pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 16.5% | 27.9% | +11.4pp |
| All Students | 13.8% | 19.6% | +5.8pp |
| Black/African American | — | 23.1% | — |
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