Garden Gate Elementary: High scores, healthy climate, strong attendance. We looked for a catch — we didn't find one.
Garden Gate posts 45.6% 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 | 64 | 46% | 70% | -0.2 | 7.6% | 0.3% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Garden Gate Elementary scores 64 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 86th 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 “70% proficient” and call it done. Garden Gate deserves a closer read. It sits at the 86th percentile of 5,744 California elementary schools — but the ranking is the least interesting thing on this page.
The headline number: 35.7% of English learners met the ELA standard — versus 10.4% statewide.
The seven-year arc
Slipped from the 98th to the 86th percentile since 2019.
This school hasn't fully recovered from the pandemic: 70% meet the standard today, versus 87% in 2019 — a gap worth asking about on a visit.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 86% | 74% | 72% | 71% | 59% |
| Grade 4 | 85% | 82% | 61% | 71% | 68% |
| Grade 5 | 80% | 87% | 73% | 69% | 65% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 89% | 84% | 81% | 85% | 82% |
| Grade 4 | 95% | 85% | 73% | 85% | 73% |
| Grade 5 | 86% | 85% | 75% | 70% | 75% |
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 11.1pp across grades; the floor rises 5.9pp. The state average rises 4.5pp over the same span. A school visit and conversation with teachers will tell you more than this number.
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 Garden Gate Elementary in Cupertino, 43.5% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 61.0% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Garden Gate Elementary trails its district average for low-income students by 17.5 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (52.0% Math proficient); Asian students (66.5% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 20.1 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 46 students tested.
6 of 13 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 falls by 14.0pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +1.3pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
TK/K students miss school at roughly twice the rate of Grades 4–6 students (12.7% vs 5.6%). 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
$77 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
Transitional kindergarten is offered here — confirmed by actual Census Day enrollment, not just the listed grade span.
On the state's science test (CAST), 54% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Garden Gate Elementary a good elementary school?
What are Garden Gate Elementary's CAASPP test scores?
How does Garden Gate Elementary rank in California?
Is Garden Gate Elementary getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Garden Gate Elementary?
How does Garden Gate Elementary compare to other schools in Cupertino?
How does Garden Gate Elementary serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 90
Nearby Middle Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 88
Nearby High Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 82
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 | 71 | 39% | 20% | 23% | 18% | 59% | +16 |
| Grade 4 | 68 | 47% | 21% | 16% | 16% | 68% | +23 |
| Grade 5 | 60 | 28% | 37% | 15% | 20% | 65% | +17 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 76 | 53% | 29% | 7% | 12% | 82% | +36 |
| Grade 4 | 74 | 47% | 26% | 15% | 12% | 73% | +31 |
| Grade 5 | 61 | 59% | 16% | 18% | 7% | 75% | +40 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 61 | 21% | 33% | 36% | 10% |
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 | 46 | 43.5% | −18 | +5 |
| Asian | 167 | 66.5% | −21 | −8 |
| English Learners | 56 | 35.7% | +0 | +25 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garden Gate Elementary ← | — | 64 | 45.6% | 70.3% | −0.2 | 0.3% |
| William Faria Elementary | 0.7 mi | 92 | 83.3% | 95.4% | −0.4 | 0.4% |
| John Muir Elementary | 2.5 mi | 90 | 69.8% | 92.1% | −3.1 | 0.5% |
| Nelson S. Dilworth Elementary | 2.7 mi | 88 | 69.2% | 87.7% | +4.4 | 0.6% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 84 | 98 | #90 | 66.1% | 87.0% | 2.6% | 0.3% | -4.5pp |
| 2022 | 80 | 98 | #100 | 56.9% | 83.0% | 10.1% | 0.0% | +7.0pp |
| 2023 | 71 | 93 | #398 | 49.5% | 72.5% | 10.5% | 0.0% | -2.2pp |
| 2024 | 66 | 89 | #648 | 52.7% | 75.0% | 12.2% | 0.3% | -8.3pp |
| 2025 | 64 | 86 | #785 | 45.6% | 70.3% | 7.6% | 0.3% | -0.2pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 3.0% | 7.2% | +4.2pp |
| Male | 2.0% | 6.4% | +4.4pp |
| Asian | 1.9% | 6.0% | +4.1pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 0.0% | 18.5% | +18.5pp |
| Two or More Races | 0.0% | 0.0% | +0.0pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 7.1% | 18.3% | +11.2pp |
| English Learners | 2.7% | 7.1% | +4.4pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 4.2% | 8.2% | +4.0pp |
| All Students | 2.5% | 6.8% | +4.3pp |
| Filipino | — | 23.1% | — |
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