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Creston Elementary · Creston

Creston Elementary: No single number tells this school's story. Here's the honest picture.

Creston posts 27% meeting the standard and 19.2% exceeding it, against 43% and 21.3% statewide. The gaps and the bright spots below are the real read.

5105 O'Donovan Road, 93432 (opens in new tab)·Atascadero Unified·Creston·Grades TK-5·61 students·46% low-income·2024–25 CAASPP·(805) 238-4771·Website
2019–2025 trend · CDE CAASPP
This schoolCA avg
Scope3845
% Exceeded19%21%
% Met+27%43%
Growth-2.9
Absence14.1%17.9%
Suspension2.4%1.6%
Scope Score
38
🌱 Building Momentum · Developing
ranked #3,512 statewide · #5 of 6 in Atascadero Unified

Creston Elementary scores 38 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 39th 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 “27% proficient” and call it done. Creston deserves a closer read. The school sits in Creston, where two in five students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.

The seven-year arc

Percentile among 5,744 elementary schools statewide

Has stayed near the 39th percentile since 2019.

CA Dashboard
ELAOrange(Declined Significantly)MathOrange(Declined Significantly)

This school hasn't fully recovered from the pandemic: 27% meet the standard today, versus 44% in 2019 — a gap worth asking about on a visit.

ELA — % met or exceeded, by grade
Grade20192025
Grade 346%23%
Math — % met or exceeded, by grade
Grade20192025
Grade 354%31%

The 4 things our score weighs

Exceeded standard
19.2%
State 21.3%
2.1pp below state avg
Met or exceeded
26.9%
State 42.7%
15.7pp below state avg
Chronic absenteeism
14.1%
State 17.9%
3.8pp below state avg
Suspension rate
2.4%
State 1.6%
0.7pp above state avg
Worth a school visit

Ask what the school is working on next. Strong numbers tell you where a school is, not where it's going.

  • 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.

Showing up, and staying in class

Chronic absenteeismChronic absenteeism: this school 14.1%, district 24.4%, state 17.9%14.1% · −3.8pp vs state
Suspension rateSuspension rate: this school 2.4%, district —, state 1.6%2.4% · +0.7pp vs state
Chronic absenteeism by grade band
Grades 4–66.7%

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
Elementary
Creston Elementary
38
This school

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

Context — never part of the Scope Score
Student : teacherStudent to teacher ratio: this school 20:1, district 23:120:1
Teaching staff6 teachers
Avg. experience16.2 years
Fully credentialed100%
Salary Schedule
Teacher salary schedule$56,546 – $106,428
Principal salary$136,922 – $154,077
Superintendent salary$241,349

Pay is set by the district, not the school.

What gets spent here

Per-pupil spendingPer-pupil spending: $20,840, CA average $14,815$20,840 · spent at this school
Federal share$1,367 per student

$1,367 per student arrives as federal Title funding — a measure of concentrated need, not school quality.

District current expense · FY 2024–25$17,137 per student

The district's current expense of education per student, from CDE's annual SACS filing — the freshest district spending figure the state publishes.

Where the district's dollars go · FY 2024–25 · CDE SACS
Instruction59%
Instruction support9%
Student services12%
Administration8%
Buildings & maintenance11%
Other2%

District-level, from the district's own SACS general-ledger filing — school-by-school breakdowns aren't published by the state.

district detail, 2016–2020 — the newest published
2020$11,955 per pupil
2019$11,333 per pupil
2018$11,288 per pupil
2017$10,597 per pupil
2016$10,747 per pupil

Source: NCES F-33 · Full district breakdown →

The neighborhood it serves

White59.0%
District 58.4% · CA 19.9%
Hispanic26.2%
District 30.6% · CA 56.1%
Other13.1%
District 8.8% · CA 9.0%
Asian1.6%
District 1.0% · CA 10.2%
Low IncomeFree/reduced lunch eligible 45.9% (18pp below CA avg)
Neighborhood — American Community Survey
Median income$147K · CA $85K
Median home value$886K · CA $659K
Bachelor's degree+46% · CA 35%
ZIP population1,142
Median age44 years

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates (2024) · ZIP-level

Worth Knowing

At 61 students, this school is much smaller than the typical California elementary school (≈480).

Transitional kindergarten is offered here — confirmed by actual Census Day enrollment, not just the listed grade span.

Frequently asked questions

Is Creston Elementary a good elementary school?

Creston Elementary has a Scope Score of 38 out of 100, placing it in the 39th percentile of California elementary schools and ranked #3,512 statewide. 19.2% of students exceeded the state standard on the 2025 CAASPP assessment, which is 2.1 percentage points below the California average of 21.3%. The Scope Score weights 6 dimensions for elementary schools: exceeded standard (38%), grade 3-to-5 growth (27%), met or exceeded (proficient) (20%), chronic absenteeism (5%), suspension rate (5%), and ELPAC English Learner proficiency (5%). Data source: California Department of Education CAASPP 2025, analyzed by SchoolScope.

What are Creston Elementary's CAASPP test scores?

On the 2025 CAASPP Smarter Balanced Assessment, 26.9% of students at Creston Elementary met or exceeded the state standard in ELA and Math combined, and 19.2% exceeded it. The gap between those numbers matters: 7.7% of students are at the proficiency floor, while 19.2% pushed past it. Most rating sites report only the combined "proficient" number. SchoolScope surfaces the exceeded-vs-met split because it reveals whether a school's curriculum challenges students beyond minimum proficiency or paces toward it. 26 student-subject combinations were assessed.

How does Creston Elementary rank in California?

Creston Elementary ranks #3,512 among California elementary schools by Scope Score, placing it in the 39th percentile. This ranking is based on a weighted composite of 2025 CAASPP test performance (exceeded and met rates), grade-level growth (Grade 3 to grade 5 growth), chronic absenteeism, and suspension rate. Unlike single-number ratings, the Scope Score shows what drives the ranking so parents can decide what matters most to their family. See full methodology.

What is the attendance and school culture like at Creston Elementary?

14.1% of students at Creston Elementary are chronically absent (missing 10% or more of school days), which is better than the California average of 17.9%. The suspension rate is 2.4%. SchoolScope includes these culture metrics in the Scope Score because they reflect day-to-day school experience in ways test scores alone cannot.

How does Creston Elementary compare to other schools in Creston?

Creston Elementary scores 38/100 (39th percentile) among California elementary schools. To compare with nearby schools, SchoolScope shows the same metrics side by side: exceeded rate, proficiency, growth trajectory, and school culture indicators. The school serves 61 students. Use the schools in Creston page or the map view to compare all elementary schools nearby.

Your other options


For the data nerds

Every number on this page

Score factors, grade-level breakdowns, subgroup proficiency, and peer comparisons.

01Score factorsWeighted composite · 2024–25
Exceeded standard · 38%
19.2%
↓ vs CA 21.3% · 48th pctile
Met or exceeded · 20%
26.9%
↓ vs CA 42.7% · 38th pctile
Chronic absenteeism · 5%
14.1%
↑ vs CA 17.9% · 56th pctile
Suspension rate · 5%
2.4%
↓ vs CA 1.6% · 44th pctile
02By grade & subgroupCAASPP 2024–25 · % of tested students
ELATestedEXCMETNEARNOTMET++/CA
Grade 31315%8%23%54%23%−20
Grade 49
Grade 55
MathTestedEXCMETNEARNOTMET++/CA
Grade 31323%8%23%46%31%−15
Grade 49
Grade 55
03Peer comparison · nearest elementary schoolssorted by Scope Score
SchoolDistScopeEXCMET+GrowthSusp
Creston Elementary ←3819.2%26.9%2.4%
California average4521.3%42.7%−2.91.6%
04More measurescontext · not all part of the Scope Score
YearScopePctileRankExcMet+AbsentSuspGrowth
20193736#353612.5%43.8%6.8%5.8%-12.5pp
20222111#51030.0%31.8%31.2%1.5%
20253839#351219.2%26.9%14.1%2.4%
NO STATEWIDE TESTING 2020–21 (COVID) · SCORE AND PERCENTILE ARE RELATIVE TO EACH YEAR'S FIELD
What we can't show
  • — Growth data isn't available — the state needs matched grades across years to compute it.
  • — Subgroup results are suppressed for small student counts (fewer than 15 tested), following CDE privacy rules.
05Climate by student groupchronic absenteeism · 2019 vs 2025 — the two years CDE publishes at subgroup level
Group20192025Δ
Female2.9%7.1%+4.2pp
Male8.6%11.8%+3.2pp
Hispanic/Latino13.3%6.3%-7.0pp
Students with Disabilities0.0%25.0%+25.0pp
Socioeconomically Disadvantaged5.7%17.2%+11.5pp
All Students5.8%9.7%+3.9pp
EXC = exceeded standard · MET+ = met or exceeded ("proficient") · Source: CA Dept. of Education · CAASPP 2024–25 · n=5,744 elementary schools · Vintages: climate subgroups 2019+2025 · district finance per its label · ACS 2022 · Data updated 2026-07-03methodology · data updates · CSV · report issue

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