Highlands Elementary: Most kids here clear the bar, year after year. The question is what happens after that.
Highlands posts 61% meeting the standard, and 35.3% going well past it. Most kids here keep up. Fewer get pushed further. Ask the school what it does for a child who already finds the work easy.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 58 | 35% | 61% | -1.4 | 11.8% | 0.4% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Highlands Elementary scores 58 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 80th 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 “61% proficient” and call it done. Highlands deserves a closer read. The school sits in San Mateo, where one in four students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
The seven-year arc
Has stayed near the 80th percentile since 2019.
Proficiency here is back to its pre-pandemic level — 61% meet the standard, about where the school stood in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 69% | 56% | 61% | 49% | 60% |
| Grade 4 | 66% | 58% | 56% | 67% | 55% |
| Grade 5 | 66% | 64% | 58% | 53% | 64% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 73% | 56% | 74% | 52% | 69% |
| Grade 4 | 57% | 63% | 58% | 64% | 57% |
| Grade 5 | 49% | 62% | 49% | 43% | 62% |
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 holds steady across grades; the floor rises 4.2pp. 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 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 Highlands Elementary in San Mateo, 27.3% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 26.5% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Highlands Elementary outperforms its district average for low-income students by 0.8 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (22.7% Math proficient); Asian students (71.1% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 34.6 percentage points for low-income students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 44 students tested.
5 of 14 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 9.8pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +8.7pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
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
$164 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), 52% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Highlands Elementary a good elementary school?
What are Highlands Elementary's CAASPP test scores?
How does Highlands Elementary rank in California?
Is Highlands Elementary getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Highlands Elementary?
How does Highlands Elementary compare to other schools in San Mateo?
How does Highlands Elementary serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 83
Nearby Middle Schools
2 within ~3 mi · avg 66
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 | 52 | 38% | 21% | 12% | 29% | 60% | +16 |
| Grade 4 | 47 | 34% | 21% | 11% | 34% | 55% | +11 |
| Grade 5 | 69 | 39% | 25% | 14% | 22% | 64% | +16 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 52 | 35% | 35% | 17% | 13% | 69% | +24 |
| Grade 4 | 47 | 23% | 34% | 19% | 23% | 57% | +16 |
| Grade 5 | 69 | 42% | 20% | 22% | 16% | 62% | +27 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 69 | 29% | 23% | 39% | 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 | 44 | 27.3% | +1 | −11 |
| Asian | 45 | 71.1% | −11 | −3 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 39 | 30.8% | +7 | −8 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Highlands Elementary ← | — | 58 | 35.3% | 61.3% | −1.4 | 0.4% |
| South Hillsborough | 2.8 mi | 86 | 74.0% | 90.4% | −12.5 | 1.2% |
| Fox Elementary | 1.8 mi | 83 | 63.7% | 80.8% | +10.6 | 0.9% |
| West Hillsborough | 2.1 mi | 80 | 65.2% | 85.0% | −2.7 | 0.8% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 55 | 74 | #1454 | 36.2% | 63.4% | 3.8% | 1.1% | -13.1pp |
| 2022 | 58 | 86 | #820 | 35.3% | 59.9% | 16.3% | 0.0% | +6.6pp |
| 2023 | 53 | 77 | #1292 | 36.1% | 59.4% | 16.0% | 0.0% | -13.8pp |
| 2024 | 51 | 69 | #1761 | 33.7% | 54.8% | 11.5% | 0.1% | -2.2pp |
| 2025 | 58 | 80 | #1136 | 35.3% | 61.3% | 11.8% | 0.4% | -1.4pp |
- — Low-income students here trail the state average for their group by 11 points in ELA — worth asking how the school is closing that gap.
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 2.0% | 11.0% | +9.0pp |
| Male | 5.1% | 11.3% | +6.2pp |
| Asian | 2.7% | 5.2% | +2.5pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 6.9% | 24.8% | +17.9pp |
| Two or More Races | 1.6% | 1.9% | +0.3pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 12.8% | 14.9% | +2.1pp |
| English Learners | 7.7% | 14.7% | +7.0pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 6.6% | 24.8% | +18.2pp |
| All Students | 3.7% | 11.2% | +7.5pp |
| Filipino | — | 13.3% | — |
| White | — | 0.0% | — |
| Homeless | — | 25.0% | — |
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