Hillside Elementary: No single number tells this school's story. Here's the honest picture.
Hillside posts 36% meeting the standard and 14.2% exceeding it, against 43% and 21.3% statewide. The gaps and the bright spots below are the real read.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 34 | 14% | 36% | +2.9 | 6.5% | 1.3% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Hillside Elementary scores 34 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 28th 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 →
🤝 Culture First — Ask whether the low absenteeism and suspension numbers come from what the school does or from the community it serves — both can produce the same numbers, and only a visit tells you which.
Most rating sites would stop at “36% proficient” and call it done. Hillside deserves a closer read. The school sits in Madera, where one in four students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
The headline number: 6.5% chronic absenteeism — versus 17.9% statewide. Attendance is the quietest strong signal a school can post.
The seven-year arc
Has stayed near the 28th percentile since 2019.
The pandemic drop is behind this school: 36% of students meet the standard today, above the 25% who did in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | — | 52% | 56% | 26% | 37% |
| Grade 4 | 25% | 32% | 45% | 32% | 24% |
| Grade 5 | — | 42% | 35% | 36% | 50% |
| Grade 6 | — | 55% | 48% | 56% | 56% |
| Grade 7 | 62% | 39% | 69% | 46% | 56% |
| Grade 8 | — | 50% | 44% | 68% | 63% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | — | 62% | 56% | 52% | 39% |
| Grade 4 | 25% | 32% | 34% | 42% | 33% |
| Grade 5 | — | 12% | 29% | 32% | 32% |
| Grade 6 | — | 52% | 39% | 39% | 36% |
| Grade 7 | 38% | 34% | 27% | 27% | 29% |
| Grade 8 | — | 43% | 11% | 32% | 36% |
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 1.8pp across grades; the floor rises 12.9pp. 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 5 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 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 Hillside Elementary in Madera, 31.4% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 37.7% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Hillside Elementary trails its district average for low-income students by 6.4 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (26.8% Math proficient); Hispanic students (42.6% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 27.5 percentage points for low-income students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 51 students tested.
9 of 15 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 rises by 30.0pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +12.0pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
Where the path goes
The path below is estimated from nearby schools in the same district — scores shown for each next step.
Estimated K-12 path based on district and proximity. Actual attendance zones may differ. 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
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.
$516 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), 39% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Hillside Elementary a good elementary school?
What are Hillside Elementary's CAASPP test scores?
How does Hillside Elementary rank in California?
Is Hillside Elementary getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Hillside Elementary?
How does Hillside Elementary compare to other schools in Madera?
How does Hillside Elementary serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 86
Private alternatives nearby
Private schools within ~10 miles. These schools do not participate in state testing and cannot be scored or ranked.
A low score doesn't tell the whole story. Read: Your School Scored Low — Here's What That Actually Means
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 | 35 | 14% | 23% | 20% | 43% | 37% | −6 |
| Grade 4 | 33 | 18% | 6% | 42% | 33% | 24% | −21 |
| Grade 5 | 32 | 13% | 38% | 22% | 28% | 50% | +2 |
| Grade 6 | 41 | 27% | 29% | 24% | 20% | 56% | +10 |
| Grade 7 | 18 | 17% | 39% | 17% | 28% | 56% | +8 |
| Grade 8 | 27 | 33% | 30% | 26% | 11% | 63% | +17 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 33 | 12% | 27% | 27% | 33% | 39% | −6 |
| Grade 4 | 33 | 12% | 21% | 42% | 24% | 33% | −8 |
| Grade 5 | 31 | 16% | 16% | 32% | 35% | 32% | −3 |
| Grade 6 | 39 | 8% | 28% | 36% | 28% | 36% | +1 |
| Grade 7 | 17 | 6% | 24% | 41% | 29% | 29% | −5 |
| Grade 8 | 25 | 16% | 20% | 32% | 32% | 36% | +4 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 59 | 14% | 25% | 58% | 3% |
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 | 51 | 31.4% | −6 | −7 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 54 | 42.6% | +1 | +4 |
| White | 58 | 41.4% | −7 | −20 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hillside Elementary ← | — | 34 | 14.2% | 36.1% | +2.9 | 1.3% |
| Ross Elementary | 2.9 mi | 91 | 67.7% | 91.0% | −10.4 | 0.7% |
| Strawberry Point Elementary | 2.4 mi | 86 | 66.2% | 84.4% | +1.0 | 1.2% |
| Park Elementary | 1.5 mi | 83 | 55.0% | 86.0% | +11.1 | 0.8% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 32 | 23 | #4255 | 12.5% | 25.0% | 5.8% | 1.2% | — |
| 2022 | 24 | 16 | #4818 | 14.5% | 38.7% | 30.0% | 3.7% | -29.9pp |
| 2023 | 30 | 27 | #4194 | 17.4% | 42.8% | 15.3% | 4.4% | -23.9pp |
| 2024 | 34 | 28 | #4155 | 13.3% | 36.6% | 6.1% | 3.8% | -4.8pp |
| 2025 | 34 | 28 | #4160 | 14.2% | 36.1% | 6.5% | 1.3% | +2.9pp |
- — Scored here as an elementary school — other grade spans appear in the data appendix.
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 4.3% | 4.8% | +0.5pp |
| Male | 4.3% | 4.7% | +0.4pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 6.7% | 5.3% | -1.4pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 4.9% | 3.4% | -1.5pp |
| All Students | 4.3% | 4.7% | +0.4pp |
| Asian | — | 5.6% | — |
| Black/African American | — | 0.0% | — |
| Two or More Races | — | 0.0% | — |
| Students with Disabilities | — | 7.9% | — |
| English Learners | — | 16.7% | — |
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