Castle Heights Elementary: More than half of kids exceed the standard. But the zoned next school scores lower.
Castle Heights holds its own. Scores drop at the schools it feeds into. Ask where its graduates actually enrol, and whether families stay on the zoned path.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 76 | 53% | 80% | -2.7 | 9.6% | 0.3% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Castle Heights Elementary scores 76 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 95th 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 →
⭐ High Ceiling — Ask what happens for a kid who shows up behind — a high ceiling for the top can sit right next to thin support at the bottom, and the score alone won't show you which.
Most rating sites would stop at “80% proficient” and call it done. Castle Heights deserves a closer read. The school sits in Los Angeles, where one in four students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
Castle Heights's low-income kids hit 61.8% 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 84th to the 95th percentile since 2019 — past roughly 600 elementary schools.
The pandemic drop is behind this school: 80% of students meet the standard today, above the 69% who did in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 68% | 67% | 78% | 75% | 74% |
| Grade 4 | 81% | 79% | 74% | 86% | 83% |
| Grade 5 | 66% | 77% | 84% | 86% | 84% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 69% | 77% | 76% | 82% | 87% |
| Grade 4 | 75% | 74% | 78% | 76% | 83% |
| Grade 5 | 54% | 60% | 65% | 72% | 71% |
The story this school is actually telling
of students scored in the top band on the state test. The California average is 21.3%.
the zoned path continues to Palms Middle, which scores 26 points lower — the data can't say why.
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 4.4pp across grades; the floor rises 10.6pp. 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.
Castle Heights's most underrated number
61.8% 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 which schools families here actually choose next — the zoned path is only the default.
- 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 which schools families here actually choose next — the zoned path is only the default.
- 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.
How every group of students does here
At Castle Heights Elementary in Los Angeles, 61.8% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 40.9% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Castle Heights Elementary outperforms its district average for low-income students by 20.9 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (57.9% Math proficient); Hispanic students (73.8% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 19.0 percentage points for low-income students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 76 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 25.8pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +4.5pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
Where the path goes
The zoned path continues to Palms Middle, which scores 26 points lower than this school — worth weighing alongside everything above. Families here often look at charter or magnet options for middle school.
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.
$741 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), 62% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Castle Heights Elementary a good elementary school?
What are Castle Heights Elementary's CAASPP test scores?
How does Castle Heights Elementary rank in California?
Is Castle Heights Elementary getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Castle Heights Elementary?
How does Castle Heights Elementary compare to other schools in Los Angeles?
How does Castle Heights Elementary serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 82
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 | 68 | 53% | 21% | 16% | 10% | 74% | +30 |
| Grade 4 | 70 | 54% | 29% | 10% | 7% | 83% | +38 |
| Grade 5 | 82 | 57% | 27% | 11% | 5% | 84% | +36 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 68 | 57% | 29% | 12% | 1% | 87% | +41 |
| Grade 4 | 70 | 49% | 34% | 14% | 3% | 83% | +41 |
| Grade 5 | 82 | 49% | 22% | 17% | 12% | 71% | +35 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 82 | 30% | 32% | 34% | 4% |
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 | 76 | 61.8% | +21 | +24 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 84 | 73.8% | +33 | +35 |
| White | 71 | 87.3% | +18 | +26 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Castle Heights Elementary ← | — | 76 | 53.2% | 80.2% | −2.7 | 0.3% |
| Overland Avenue Elementary | 1.3 mi | 88 | 70.4% | 90.4% | +3.3 | 0.5% |
| Clover Avenue Elementary | 1.8 mi | 81 | 65.6% | 86.3% | −3.9 | 0.5% |
| Mar Vista Elementary | 2.6 mi | 77 | 55.0% | 83.1% | −1.1 | 0.1% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 63 | 84 | #873 | 41.6% | 69.0% | 13.7% | 0.0% | -8.3pp |
| 2022 | 64 | 90 | #572 | 45.6% | 72.5% | 18.7% | 0.2% | -3.3pp |
| 2023 | 70 | 93 | #411 | 47.6% | 75.8% | 17.2% | 0.0% | -2.7pp |
| 2024 | 82 | 98 | #109 | 54.5% | 79.4% | 10.1% | 0.1% | +0.6pp |
| 2025 | 76 | 95 | #266 | 53.2% | 80.2% | 9.6% | 0.3% | -2.7pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 12.0% | 8.8% | -3.2pp |
| Male | 15.7% | 9.2% | -6.5pp |
| Asian | 17.1% | 0.0% | -17.1pp |
| Black/African American | 16.3% | 10.0% | -6.3pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 17.4% | 11.3% | -6.1pp |
| Two or More Races | 17.8% | 13.0% | -4.8pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 15.9% | 12.7% | -3.2pp |
| English Learners | 13.2% | 3.4% | -9.8pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 20.6% | 16.5% | -4.1pp |
| All Students | 13.8% | 9.0% | -4.8pp |
| Filipino | — | 0.0% | — |
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