General Shafter Elementary: This school runs ahead of the state average. The bar itself is the harder conversation.
General Shafter posts 43% meeting the standard against 43% statewide — ahead of most, with real headroom above the bar.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 48 | 20% | 43% | -15.6 | 12.2% | 3.0% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
General Shafter Elementary scores 48 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 64th 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 →
🌱 Building Momentum — This label means the data doesn't clearly sort the school one way or the other — ask what the school is proud of, and what it's working on.
Most rating sites would stop at “43% proficient” and call it done. General Shafter deserves a closer read. The school sits in Bakersfield, where four in five students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
The seven-year arc
Climbed from the 24th to the 64th percentile since 2019 — past roughly 2200 elementary schools.
This school hasn't fully recovered from the pandemic: 43% meet the standard today, versus 47% in 2019 — a gap worth asking about on a visit.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 59% | 23% | 33% | 35% | 48% |
| Grade 4 | 36% | 46% | 38% | 35% | 37% |
| Grade 5 | 25% | 56% | 31% | 47% | 38% |
| Grade 6 | 69% | 46% | 42% | 19% | 63% |
| Grade 7 | 85% | 56% | 56% | 56% | 31% |
| Grade 8 | 67% | 45% | 56% | 65% | 50% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 64% | 24% | 40% | 41% | 58% |
| Grade 4 | 57% | 43% | 33% | 22% | 42% |
| Grade 5 | 40% | 25% | 23% | 42% | 38% |
| Grade 6 | 54% | 39% | 21% | 19% | 42% |
| Grade 7 | 60% | 39% | 44% | 58% | 35% |
| Grade 8 | 46% | 42% | 33% | 30% | 60% |
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 3.0pp across grades; the floor slips 10.3pp. 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 how the school challenges kids who clear the standard early. The gap between meeting and exceeding is where pacing shows.
- Ask what changes between grade 3 and grade 5 here, and who teaches the older kids.
- 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 General Shafter Elementary in Bakersfield, 43.0% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 43.0% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. General Shafter Elementary outperforms its district average for low-income students by 0.0 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (42.6% Math proficient); Hispanic students (44.2% ELA proficient). Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 107 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 falls by 18.8pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: -18.8pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
The people teaching here
What gets spent here
These measure different things: this figure is spending attributed to this campus, while district-wide figures also include central administration, districtwide programs, and the state's pension contributions made on the district's behalf — costs that never get assigned to a single school. The district number runs higher at nearly every school, not just this one.
$2,417 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 169 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), 39% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is General Shafter Elementary a good elementary school?
What are General Shafter Elementary's CAASPP test scores?
How does General Shafter Elementary rank in California?
Is General Shafter Elementary getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at General Shafter Elementary?
How does General Shafter Elementary compare to other schools in Bakersfield?
How does General Shafter Elementary serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
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 | 23 | 22% | 26% | 22% | 30% | 48% | +4 |
| Grade 4 | 19 | 21% | 16% | 21% | 42% | 37% | −8 |
| Grade 5 | 16 | 19% | 19% | 38% | 25% | 38% | −10 |
| Grade 6 | 19 | 26% | 37% | 16% | 21% | 63% | +17 |
| Grade 7 | 26 | 4% | 27% | 46% | 23% | 31% | −17 |
| Grade 8 | 20 | 10% | 40% | 30% | 20% | 50% | +4 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 24 | 25% | 33% | 8% | 33% | 58% | +13 |
| Grade 4 | 19 | 16% | 26% | 21% | 37% | 42% | +1 |
| Grade 5 | 16 | 19% | 19% | 38% | 25% | 38% | +2 |
| Grade 6 | 19 | 16% | 26% | 21% | 37% | 42% | +7 |
| Grade 7 | 26 | 8% | 27% | 35% | 31% | 35% | +1 |
| Grade 8 | 20 | 20% | 40% | 15% | 25% | 60% | +28 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 36 | 6% | 33% | 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 | 107 | 43.0% | +0 | +5 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 77 | 44.2% | +0 | +5 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Shafter Elementary ← | — | 48 | 20.2% | 43.4% | −15.6 | 3.0% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 32 | 24 | #4206 | 17.6% | 46.8% | 13.4% | 0.1% | -28.9pp |
| 2022 | 47 | 73 | #1572 | 16.2% | 36.1% | 44.6% | 0.5% | +17.0pp |
| 2023 | 31 | 30 | #3986 | 7.6% | 33.1% | 39.3% | 2.1% | -9.7pp |
| 2024 | 53 | 73 | #1541 | 15.9% | 37.2% | 18.7% | 1.8% | +6.5pp |
| 2025 | 48 | 64 | #2049 | 20.2% | 43.4% | 12.2% | 3.0% | -15.6pp |
- — Scored here as an elementary school — other grade spans appear in the data appendix.
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 18.9% | 7.7% | -11.2pp |
| Male | 6.7% | 13.8% | +7.1pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 12.1% | 10.9% | -1.2pp |
| English Learners | 21.3% | 10.2% | -11.1pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 15.4% | 10.8% | -4.6pp |
| All Students | 13.5% | 10.7% | -2.8pp |
| Students with Disabilities | — | 12.5% | — |
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