Descanso Elementary: The score trails the state median. The trajectory doesn't.
Descanso still trails on raw proficiency — and it's climbing faster than most schools anywhere near it — and that holds when you follow the same students across grades.
Descanso Elementary scores 40 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 50th 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 →
Most rating sites would stop at “45% proficient” and call it done. Descanso deserves a closer read. The school sits in Descanso, where two in five students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
The headline number: 56.7% of low-income students met the ELA standard — versus 38.2% for the same group statewide.
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 28.2pp across grades; the floor rises 45.2pp. 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.
Descanso's most underrated number
56.7% 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.
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.
Your other options
The community around it
Student demographics
2 more gaps by subject
Subgroups with fewer than 15 students are excluded for privacy. Gaps of less than 3 percentage points are not shown.
Weighted average across tested grades. Subgroups with fewer than 15 students excluded. Data: CDE CAASPP 2024-25.
Subgroup Growth by Grade
Subgroups with fewer than 10 tested students per grade are not shown.
Funding Breakdown
Neighborhood Context
Whole Child
Source: CDE SARC, 2024-25
For the data nerdsEvery number on this page
Score factors, grade-level breakdowns, subgroup proficiency, and peer comparisons.
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 | 18 | 11% | 22% | 44% | 22% | 33% | −10 |
| Grade 4 | 35 | 20% | 40% | 9% | 31% | 60% | +15 |
| Grade 5 | 28 | 39% | 39% | 4% | 18% | 79% | +31 |
| Grade 6 | 19 | 37% | 47% | 16% | 0% | 84% | +38 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 18 | 6% | 22% | 39% | 33% | 28% | −18 |
| Grade 4 | 35 | 17% | 26% | 34% | 23% | 43% | +1 |
| Grade 5 | 28 | 11% | 14% | 43% | 32% | 25% | −10 |
| Grade 6 | 19 | 26% | 32% | 26% | 16% | 58% | +23 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 28 | 18% | 21% | 50% | 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 | 30 | 56.7% | +36 | +18 |
| White | 40 | 70.0% | +27 | +8 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Descanso Elementary ← | — | 40 | 17.3% | 44.6% | +21.2 | 0.7% |
| California average | — | 43 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
A low score doesn't tell the whole story. Read: Your School Scored Low — Here's What That Actually Means