Cubberley Elementary: The score is strong. The trajectory is stronger.
Cubberley pairs 50% proficiency with gains that hold up when the same students are tracked two years apart — the rare school that posts both.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 41 | 15% | 50% | +7.0 | 24.2% | 2.1% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Cubberley Elementary scores 41 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 47th 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 “50% proficient” and call it done. Cubberley deserves a closer read. The school sits in San Diego, where more than half of students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
Cubberley's low-income kids hit 48.6% 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
Slipped from the 65th to the 47th percentile since 2019.
Proficiency here is back to its pre-pandemic level — 50% meet the standard, about where the school stood in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 48% | 46% | 50% | 58% | 43% |
| Grade 4 | 47% | 50% | 41% | 50% | 50% |
| Grade 5 | 64% | 52% | 67% | 45% | 71% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 43% | 38% | 65% | 68% | 53% |
| Grade 4 | 47% | 44% | 14% | 46% | 41% |
| Grade 5 | 50% | 28% | 38% | 23% | 39% |
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 5.5pp across grades; the floor rises 28.1pp. The state average rises 4.5pp over the same span. A school visit and conversation with teachers will tell you more than this number.
Cubberley's most underrated number
48.6% 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 what changed — new curriculum, new principal, new program. Momentum has a cause, and a visit will find it.
- Ask how the school follows up when a student starts missing days — chronic absence often starts outside the classroom, not inside it.
- 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 Cubberley Elementary in San Diego, 48.6% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 42.6% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Cubberley Elementary outperforms its district average for low-income students by 6.1 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (33.3% Math proficient). Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 37 students tested.
9 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 18.8pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +5.6pp.
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
$1,188 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
At 199 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.
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 Cubberley Elementary a good elementary school?
What are Cubberley Elementary's CAASPP test scores?
How does Cubberley Elementary rank in California?
Is Cubberley Elementary getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Cubberley Elementary?
How does Cubberley Elementary compare to other schools in San Diego?
How does Cubberley Elementary serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 64
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 | 30 | 23% | 20% | 40% | 17% | 43% | −0 |
| Grade 4 | 16 | 25% | 25% | 25% | 25% | 50% | +5 |
| Grade 5 | 28 | 18% | 54% | 14% | 14% | 71% | +24 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 30 | 13% | 40% | 27% | 20% | 53% | +8 |
| Grade 4 | 17 | 6% | 35% | 29% | 29% | 41% | −0 |
| Grade 5 | 28 | 7% | 32% | 39% | 21% | 39% | +4 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 28 | 18% | 29% | 43% | 11% |
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 | 37 | 48.6% | +6 | +10 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cubberley Elementary ← | — | 41 | 15.4% | 49.8% | +7.0 | 2.1% |
| Kumeyaay Elementary | 3.2 mi | 69 | 43.1% | 70.9% | −1.0 | 0.3% |
| Chesterton Elementary | 2.1 mi | 63 | 37.9% | 63.8% | +10.2 | 0.6% |
| Vista Grande Elementary | 2.5 mi | 60 | 34.2% | 59.2% | +0.6 | 0.1% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 49 | 65 | #1905 | 18.6% | 49.6% | 15.8% | 13.2% | +11.6pp |
| 2022 | 37 | 52 | #2741 | 18.3% | 43.0% | 37.7% | 2.1% | -1.7pp |
| 2023 | 44 | 61 | #2206 | 22.2% | 45.8% | 27.8% | 2.4% | -5.3pp |
| 2024 | 44 | 56 | #2496 | 23.5% | 48.4% | 21.7% | 1.9% | -29.1pp |
| 2025 | 41 | 47 | #3052 | 15.4% | 49.8% | 24.2% | 2.1% | +7.0pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 13.3% | 24.7% | +11.4pp |
| Male | 18.6% | 26.0% | +7.4pp |
| Asian | 6.3% | 12.5% | +6.2pp |
| Black/African American | 21.1% | 40.0% | +18.9pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 22.2% | 36.5% | +14.3pp |
| Two or More Races | 16.7% | 17.8% | +1.1pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 13.0% | 39.2% | +26.2pp |
| English Learners | 14.3% | 43.5% | +29.2pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 22.0% | 34.8% | +12.8pp |
| All Students | 16.2% | 25.5% | +9.3pp |
| Homeless | — | 50.0% | — |
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