Dixon Montessori Charter: Low-income kids here outscore the state by 12 points. But this year's 5th graders test below its 3rd graders.
Dixon Montessori Charter posts numbers for its most vulnerable students that most schools don't reach overall. The trend line is the part worth a closer look.
Dixon Montessori Charter scores 42 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 55th 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 “43% proficient” and call it done. Dixon Montessori Charter deserves a closer read. The school sits in Dixon, where one in four students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
The headline number: 3.7% chronic absenteeism — versus 17.9% statewide. Attendance is the quietest strong signal a school can post.
As a charter, Dixon Montessori Charter enrolls by application, not address — the score reads the same, the enrollment path doesn't.
The story this school is actually telling
chronic absenteeism — versus 17.9% statewide. Attendance is the quietest strong signal a school can post.
proficiency runs 52% in this year's grade 3 against 41% in its grade 5. The state average rises by +4.5pp over the same span.
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 holds steady across grades; the floor slips 3.9pp. The state average rises 4.5pp over the same span. The school's 5th graders aren't posting a wider lead than its 3rd graders. One question worth asking on a tour: are the strongest students being pushed, or coasting? A school visit and conversation with teachers will tell you more than this number.
Dixon Montessori Charter's most underrated number
50.0% 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 5 things our score weighs
Ask the principal what changes between grade 3 and grade 5. The trajectory is the thing a tour will tell you more about than a spreadsheet.
Where the path goes
The path below follows attendance boundaries — scores shown for each next step.
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 28
Nearby High Schools
2 within ~3 mi · avg 34
Private alternatives nearby
Private schools within ~10 miles. These schools do not participate in state testing and cannot be scored or ranked.
The community around it
Student demographics
3 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
Low-income student ELA proficiency falls by 15.4pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +0.4pp.
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 | 51 | 18% | 29% | 31% | 22% | 47% | +4 |
| Grade 4 | 50 | 10% | 32% | 16% | 42% | 42% | −3 |
| Grade 5 | 51 | 18% | 25% | 31% | 25% | 43% | −5 |
| Grade 6 | 50 | 28% | 38% | 22% | 12% | 66% | +19 |
| Grade 7 | 45 | 16% | 60% | 16% | 9% | 76% | +28 |
| Grade 8 | 40 | 28% | 43% | 15% | 15% | 70% | +24 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 51 | 22% | 35% | 29% | 14% | 57% | +11 |
| Grade 4 | 50 | 10% | 22% | 40% | 28% | 32% | −10 |
| Grade 5 | 51 | 24% | 16% | 31% | 29% | 39% | +4 |
| Grade 6 | 50 | 26% | 22% | 22% | 30% | 48% | +13 |
| Grade 7 | 45 | 31% | 16% | 20% | 33% | 47% | +13 |
| Grade 8 | 40 | 43% | 18% | 18% | 23% | 60% | +28 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 91 | 13% | 27% | 52% | 8% |
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 | 74 | 50.0% | +23 | +12 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 127 | 48.8% | +21 | +10 |
| White | 122 | 63.9% | +25 | +2 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dixon Montessori Charter ← | — | 42 | 16.7% | 43.4% | −10.8 | 0.9% |
| Tremont Elementary | 0.7 mi | 34 | 13.9% | 36.1% | −7.6 | 3.0% |
| Anderson (Linford L.) Elementary | 0.7 mi | 31 | 11.8% | 32.4% | −9.4 | 1.7% |
| Gretchen Higgins Elementary | 0.9 mi | 21 | 4.1% | 18.9% | −4.2 | 1.9% |
| California average | — | 43 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
- — Scored here as an elementary school — other grade spans appear in the data appendix.