Carlton Hills Elementary: Most kids here clear the bar, year after year. The question is what happens after that.
Carlton Hills posts 60% meeting the standard, and 32.8% 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 | 58 | 33% | 60% | +4.7 | 14.7% | 2.1% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Carlton Hills Elementary scores 58 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 79th 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. Carlton Hills deserves a closer read. The school sits in Santee, where two in five students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
Carlton Hills's low-income kids hit 49.4% 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 57th to the 79th percentile since 2019 — past roughly 1200 elementary schools.
Proficiency here is back to its pre-pandemic level — 60% meet the standard, about where the school stood in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 67% | 70% | 60% | 59% | 47% |
| Grade 4 | 64% | 53% | 63% | 59% | 66% |
| Grade 5 | 54% | 70% | 44% | 64% | 64% |
| Grade 6 | 47% | 47% | 53% | 41% | 44% |
| Grade 7 | 65% | 71% | 73% | 78% | 60% |
| Grade 8 | 53% | 71% | 68% | 71% | 77% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 64% | 74% | 64% | 71% | 62% |
| Grade 4 | 69% | 39% | 58% | 61% | 66% |
| Grade 5 | 46% | 39% | 32% | 49% | 54% |
| Grade 6 | 35% | 40% | 28% | 52% | 52% |
| Grade 7 | 59% | 47% | 56% | 50% | 56% |
| Grade 8 | 68% | 56% | 68% | 54% | 58% |
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 12.5pp across grades; the floor rises 17.2pp. 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.
Carlton Hills's most underrated number
49.4% 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 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 Carlton Hills Elementary in Santee, 49.4% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 50.3% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Carlton Hills Elementary trails its district average for low-income students by 0.9 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (42.6% Math proficient); White students (62.8% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 11.1 percentage points for low-income students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 176 students tested.
7 of 14 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 29.4pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +4.0pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
Grades 7–8 students miss school at roughly twice the rate of Grades 4–6 students (20.9% vs 9.8%). Chronic absence here concentrates in the upper grades.
Where the path goes
The path below is estimated from nearby schools in the same district — scores shown for each next step.
Estimated K-12 path based on district and proximity. Actual attendance zones may differ. Contact your school district for official feeder information.
The people teaching here
Pay is set by the district, not the school.
What gets spent here
$386 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), 46% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Carlton Hills Elementary a good elementary school?
What are Carlton Hills Elementary's CAASPP test scores?
How does Carlton Hills Elementary rank in California?
Is Carlton Hills Elementary getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Carlton Hills Elementary?
How does Carlton Hills Elementary compare to other schools in Santee?
How does Carlton Hills Elementary serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 57
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 | 47 | 26% | 21% | 32% | 21% | 47% | +3 |
| Grade 4 | 56 | 36% | 30% | 18% | 16% | 66% | +21 |
| Grade 5 | 50 | 38% | 26% | 22% | 14% | 64% | +16 |
| Grade 6 | 61 | 18% | 26% | 36% | 20% | 44% | −2 |
| Grade 7 | 87 | 16% | 44% | 30% | 10% | 60% | +12 |
| Grade 8 | 62 | 42% | 35% | 8% | 15% | 77% | +31 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 47 | 36% | 26% | 23% | 15% | 62% | +16 |
| Grade 4 | 56 | 38% | 29% | 27% | 7% | 66% | +24 |
| Grade 5 | 50 | 24% | 30% | 16% | 30% | 54% | +19 |
| Grade 6 | 61 | 25% | 28% | 23% | 25% | 52% | +17 |
| Grade 7 | 87 | 25% | 31% | 28% | 16% | 56% | +22 |
| Grade 8 | 62 | 50% | 8% | 24% | 18% | 58% | +26 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 112 | 19% | 27% | 48% | 6% |
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 | 176 | 49.4% | −1 | +11 |
| White | 191 | 62.8% | +1 | +1 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 116 | 54.3% | +3 | +15 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carlton Hills Elementary ← | — | 58 | 32.8% | 59.8% | +4.7 | 2.1% |
| Hill Creek Elementary | 2 mi | 60 | 28.6% | 57.8% | +7.5 | 2.8% |
| Sycamore Canyon Elementary | 1.1 mi | 57 | 33.8% | 63.3% | −5.7 | 1.5% |
| Rio Seco Elementary | 0.8 mi | 53 | 33.3% | 59.9% | −3.4 | 1.8% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 45 | 57 | #2376 | 26.3% | 60.8% | 9.0% | 3.7% | -15.7pp |
| 2022 | 43 | 65 | #1999 | 27.9% | 57.3% | 32.7% | 2.9% | -17.2pp |
| 2023 | 38 | 48 | #2975 | 21.8% | 53.3% | 21.8% | 4.1% | -24.0pp |
| 2024 | 44 | 56 | #2510 | 27.9% | 60.5% | 14.1% | 2.5% | -8.8pp |
| 2025 | 58 | 79 | #1216 | 32.8% | 59.8% | 14.7% | 2.1% | +4.7pp |
- — Scored here as an elementary school — other grade spans appear in the data appendix.
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 7.5% | 14.2% | +6.7pp |
| Male | 10.4% | 14.5% | +4.1pp |
| Asian | 0.0% | 0.0% | +0.0pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 10.3% | 20.4% | +10.1pp |
| Two or More Races | 13.1% | 14.0% | +0.9pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 15.9% | 23.2% | +7.3pp |
| English Learners | 4.4% | 8.8% | +4.4pp |
| Homeless | 24.4% | 66.7% | +42.3pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 12.5% | 20.6% | +8.1pp |
| All Students | 9.0% | 14.4% | +5.4pp |
| White | — | 25.0% | — |
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