El Marino Elementary: High scores, healthy climate, strong attendance. We looked for a catch — we didn't find one.
El Marino posts 47.4% exceeding the standard — versus 21.3% statewide — with climate numbers better than most. That doesn't make it perfect. It makes it worth a visit to find what numbers can't measure.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 67 | 47% | 73% | -0.8 | 3.6% | 0.1% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
El Marino Elementary scores 67 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 89th 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 →
💪 Strong All-Around — Ask about what we don't score — class size, electives, the feel of a classroom — strong numbers everywhere on paper don't mean every classroom feels the same.
Most rating sites would stop at “73% proficient” and call it done. El Marino deserves a closer read. It sits at the 89th percentile of 5,744 California elementary schools — but the ranking is the least interesting thing on this page.
El Marino's low-income kids hit 56.8% 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
Has held the 89th-percentile line every tested year since 2019.
This school hasn't fully recovered from the pandemic: 73% meet the standard today, versus 78% in 2019 — a gap worth asking about on a visit.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 72% | 77% | 71% | 72% | 65% |
| Grade 4 | 78% | 76% | 74% | 73% | 75% |
| Grade 5 | 81% | 73% | 78% | 67% | 72% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 81% | 78% | 77% | 81% | 76% |
| Grade 4 | 87% | 83% | 76% | 77% | 81% |
| Grade 5 | 72% | 53% | 63% | 52% | 67% |
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 8.4pp across grades; the floor rises 7.0pp. The state average rises 4.5pp over the same span. A school visit and conversation with teachers will tell you more than this number.
El Marino's most underrated number
56.8% 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 what the school is working on next. Strong numbers tell you where a school is, not where it's going.
- 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 El Marino Elementary in Culver City, 56.8% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 44.5% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. El Marino Elementary outperforms its district average for low-income students by 12.2 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (63.5% Math proficient); Hispanic students (69.5% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 56.5 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 74 students tested.
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 0.0pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +3.8pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
TK/K students miss school at roughly three times the rate of Grades 4–6 students (7.6% vs 1.3%). Chronic absence here concentrates in the earliest grades — worth asking how the school works with new families on attendance.
Where the path goes
The path below follows attendance boundaries — scores shown for each next step.
Estimated path based on proximity within the same district. Contact your school district for official feeder information.
The people teaching here
Pay is set by the district, not the school.
What gets spent here
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 795 students, this school is well above 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), 43% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is El Marino a good school?
Yes, by the numbers it's Strong — El Marino sits at the 91st percentile statewide, with 72.7% of students meeting or exceeding standard (CDE CAASPP 2024-25). The complication: that average hides a big split. English Learners, a core part of this school's identity, score 44.7 points below the school average. The school is strong overall. That strength does not spread evenly across every group of students in it.
Does El Marino live up to its dual-immersion mission?
Partly. El Marino says it's committed to the idea that all students can become bilingual and biliterate during their elementary years. The schoolwide scores back up strong instruction in general — 47.4% of students exceed standard, and grade 4 math hits 81.4% met or exceeded (CDE CAASPP 2024-25). Only 29.4% of English Learners reach ELPAC Level 4, the level tied to English proficiency (CDE ELPAC, 2024-25). The website doesn't mention this gap. On a visit, ask how the school tracks English Learner progress specifically within the immersion strands, and what support looks like for a child who isn't yet at Level 4.
Will this school work well for a child who is an English Learner?
This is the number to look at closely. English Learners at El Marino score 44.7 points below the schoolwide average (CDE CAASPP 2024-25), and 29.4% reach ELPAC Level 4 (CDE ELPAC, 2024-25). This gap sits in outcomes at a school built entirely around bilingual instruction, and it's worth understanding before you enroll. We can't tell from this data whether that gap reflects immersion-track English Learners specifically or a separate group of newly arrived EL students outside the immersion program. That's a direct question worth asking the office: how does the school separate and support those two groups?
Who is teaching at El Marino?
An experienced staff: teachers average 18.0 years of experience, 100% are fully credentialed, and just 2.4% are in their first year (CDE staff assignment data, 2024-25). That describes stable hiring conditions across the school. It says nothing about what happens inside any one classroom.
What does El Marino spend per student?
$19,268 per pupil, below the state average of $23,518 (NCES F-33 school finance). Lower spending here is a resourcing fact about the district's budget. El Marino's outcomes above already reflect whatever that funding buys.
Are some grades stronger than others at El Marino?
Yes. Grade 4 math is the strongest tested grade-subject, at 81.4% met or exceeded. Grade 3 ELA is the weakest, at 64.9% (CDE CAASPP 2024-25). If your child is entering in 3rd grade specifically, that's worth a direct question about ELA support at that grade level.
What's daily life like for a student at El Marino?
The numbers point to a stable campus: chronic absenteeism is just 3.6% (CDE chronic absenteeism, 2024-25), and the suspension rate is 0.1% (CDE suspension data, 2024-25), among the lowest figures possible. Those numbers can't tell you what a school day actually feels like, or whether bullying happens. Ask about that directly on a campus visit.
Where does El Marino send kids after elementary?
El Marino feeds into two downstream schools on record. Feeder data only shows where students go next. Research the quality of those schools separately if you're planning that far ahead.
How does admission to El Marino work?
El Marino has no neighborhood boundary. Any Culver City Unified resident can apply, and placement is decided by a language assessment and a lottery (elmarino.ccusd.org FAQ).
What we found when we looked closer
El Marino is a Strong school — 91st percentile statewide, with 72.7% of students meeting or exceeding standard (CDE CAASPP 2024-25) — and also a school whose central mission runs into a real gap in its own data. Both things are true, and a family looking at this campus should know both before they apply.
The strength shows up across the board. Nearly half of students, 47.4%, exceed standard rather than just meeting it. Grade 4 math is the standout, at 81.4% met or exceeded. Chronic absenteeism sits at 3.6% (CDE chronic absenteeism, 2024-25) and suspensions at 0.1% (CDE suspension data, 2024-25), both near the floor of what's measurable — a campus where kids show up and stay in class. The teaching staff averages 18 years of experience, is 100% fully credentialed, and has almost no first-year teachers (CDE staff assignment data, 2024-25). This is what the record shows for this specific school, in this specific year.
The catch sits at the center of what El Marino says makes it distinct. The school states it is 'committed to the principle that all students can become bilingual and biliterate during the elementary school years,' and El Marino has no neighborhood boundary at all — every student is there by application, language assessment, and lottery. This is a school built entirely around a bilingual mission.
Against that mission, English Learners score 44.7 points below the schoolwide average (CDE CAASPP 2024-25), and only 29.4% reach ELPAC Level 4, the level tied to English proficiency (CDE ELPAC, 2024-25). A school can post strong averages driven by a larger group of non-EL students while a smaller EL subgroup lags well behind, and that's exactly the shape of El Marino's numbers. The website's account of universal bilingual success isn't yet reflected in the EL data, and that's worth naming plainly rather than filing under 'test scores aren't everything.'
What the data can't answer: whether that 29.4% figure describes English Learners already inside the immersion strands, or a separate group of newly arrived EL students outside the program entirely. Those are very different situations for a parent to weigh, and only a direct conversation with the school — not a spreadsheet — will sort that out. If your child would enter as an English Learner, that's the first question to ask on a tour: how does the school track and support EL progress specifically within Spanish and Japanese immersion, separate from the schoolwide average that currently looks so strong.
Written by SchoolScope from El Marino Elementary’s own website and California Department of Education data, checked 2026-08-08· How we do this · Who we are
Sources (13)
- elmarino.ccusd.org — home
- elmarino.ccusd.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?pREC_ID=1526104&type=d&uREC_ID=1329016 — about
- elmarino.ccusd.org/apps/news/article/2155376 — enrollment
- elmarino.ccusd.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?pREC_ID=1048420&type=d&uREC_ID=537115 — academics
- elmarino.ccusd.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?pREC_ID=150040&type=d&uREC_ID=43701 — activities
- elmarino.ccusd.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?pREC_ID=2741183&type=d&uREC_ID=4467970 — enrollment
- elmarino.ccusd.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?pREC_ID=344839&type=d&uREC_ID=56394 — academics
- elmarino.ccusd.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?pREC_ID=54173&type=d&uREC_ID=43703 — safety
- elmarino.ccusd.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?pREC_ID=80300&type=d&uREC_ID=56392 — academics
- elmarino.ccusd.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?type=d&uREC_ID=43557 — supports
- elmarino.ccusd.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?type=d&uREC_ID=4467775 — principal
- elmarino.ccusd.org/apps/staff — principal
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 79
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 | 134 | 47% | 18% | 22% | 13% | 65% | +22 |
| Grade 4 | 118 | 58% | 17% | 18% | 7% | 75% | +31 |
| Grade 5 | 114 | 39% | 33% | 12% | 16% | 72% | +24 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 135 | 40% | 36% | 17% | 7% | 76% | +30 |
| Grade 4 | 118 | 53% | 28% | 18% | 1% | 81% | +40 |
| Grade 5 | 115 | 47% | 20% | 21% | 12% | 67% | +32 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 115 | 17% | 27% | 48% | 9% |
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 | 56.8% | +12 | +19 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 141 | 69.5% | +17 | +31 |
| Two or More Races | 82 | 80.5% | +2 | +19 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| El Marino Elementary ← | — | 67 | 47.4% | 72.7% | −0.8 | 0.1% |
| Clover Avenue Elementary | 2.8 mi | 81 | 65.6% | 86.3% | −3.9 | 0.5% |
| Kentwood Elementary | 2 mi | 77 | 63.2% | 80.7% | −14.8 | 0.4% |
| Mar Vista Elementary | 2.5 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 | 74 | 93 | #371 | 48.7% | 78.5% | 2.0% | 0.2% | +0.0pp |
| 2022 | 63 | 90 | #599 | 44.9% | 73.5% | 8.1% | 0.0% | -14.3pp |
| 2023 | 65 | 89 | #653 | 42.8% | 73.3% | 7.7% | 0.1% | -3.3pp |
| 2024 | 60 | 82 | #1025 | 43.7% | 70.3% | 4.4% | 0.1% | -16.8pp |
| 2025 | 67 | 89 | #606 | 47.4% | 72.7% | 3.6% | 0.1% | -0.8pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 2.1% | 3.8% | +1.7pp |
| Male | 1.7% | 2.2% | +0.5pp |
| Asian | 0.7% | 2.7% | +2.0pp |
| Black/African American | 0.0% | 0.0% | +0.0pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 3.3% | 5.6% | +2.3pp |
| Two or More Races | 1.1% | 0.6% | -0.5pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 1.5% | 0.0% | -1.5pp |
| English Learners | 1.4% | 5.1% | +3.7pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 5.6% | 9.1% | +3.5pp |
| All Students | 1.9% | 3.0% | +1.1pp |
| Filipino | — | 0.0% | — |
| White | — | 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