James Dukes Elementary: Most kids here clear the bar, year after year. The question is what happens after that.
James Dukes posts 55% meeting the standard, and 25.0% 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 | 52 | 25% | 55% | -9.7 | 16.3% | 1.7% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
James Dukes Elementary scores 52 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 70th 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 “55% proficient” and call it done. James Dukes deserves a closer read. The school sits in Ramona, where one in three students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
James Dukes's low-income kids hit 51.0% 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 stayed near the 70th percentile since 2019.
Proficiency here is back to its pre-pandemic level — 55% meet the standard, about where the school stood in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 52% | 60% | 47% | 57% | 51% |
| Grade 4 | 48% | 52% | 46% | 63% | 67% |
| Grade 5 | 66% | 54% | 48% | 57% | 52% |
| Grade 6 | 61% | 57% | 59% | 61% | 63% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 60% | 60% | 59% | 64% | 62% |
| Grade 4 | 54% | 45% | 51% | 61% | 54% |
| Grade 5 | 42% | 29% | 39% | 47% | 42% |
| Grade 6 | 49% | 42% | 59% | 64% | 64% |
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 proficiency floor barely moves. The state average rises 4.5pp over the same span. A school visit and conversation with teachers will tell you more than this number.
James Dukes's most underrated number
51.0% 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 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 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 James Dukes Elementary in Ramona, 51.0% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 35.8% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. James Dukes Elementary outperforms its district average for low-income students by 15.2 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (46.2% Math proficient); White students (58.6% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 4.9 percentage points for low-income students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 104 students tested.
8 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 3.1pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: -10.6pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
TK/K students miss school at roughly one and a half times the rate of Grades 4–6 students (21.9% vs 12.9%). 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
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.
$420 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), 34% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is James Dukes Elementary a good elementary school?
What are James Dukes Elementary's CAASPP test scores?
How does James Dukes Elementary rank in California?
Is James Dukes Elementary getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at James Dukes Elementary?
How does James Dukes Elementary compare to other schools in Ramona?
How does James Dukes 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 | 68 | 21% | 31% | 29% | 19% | 51% | +8 |
| Grade 4 | 57 | 40% | 26% | 19% | 14% | 67% | +22 |
| Grade 5 | 64 | 22% | 30% | 28% | 20% | 52% | +4 |
| Grade 6 | 72 | 21% | 42% | 29% | 8% | 63% | +16 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 68 | 22% | 40% | 25% | 13% | 62% | +16 |
| Grade 4 | 57 | 28% | 26% | 28% | 18% | 54% | +13 |
| Grade 5 | 64 | 17% | 25% | 30% | 28% | 42% | +7 |
| Grade 6 | 72 | 35% | 29% | 22% | 14% | 64% | +29 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 64 | 9% | 25% | 56% | 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 | 104 | 51.0% | +15 | +13 |
| White | 128 | 58.6% | +5 | −3 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 106 | 53.8% | +19 | +15 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| James Dukes Elementary ← | — | 52 | 25.0% | 54.7% | −9.7 | 1.7% |
| Barnett Elementary | 1.4 mi | 33 | 10.2% | 30.6% | −14.7 | 0.7% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 50 | 67 | #1819 | 23.2% | 53.6% | 9.7% | 1.7% | -1.9pp |
| 2022 | 35 | 48 | #3008 | 17.2% | 49.9% | 30.0% | 0.5% | -18.3pp |
| 2023 | 41 | 55 | #2583 | 19.5% | 48.4% | 26.4% | 0.7% | -9.5pp |
| 2024 | 53 | 74 | #1481 | 28.2% | 58.2% | 18.4% | 1.1% | -8.7pp |
| 2025 | 52 | 70 | #1712 | 25.0% | 54.7% | 16.3% | 1.7% | -9.7pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 10.7% | 14.0% | +3.3pp |
| Male | 8.9% | 17.9% | +9.0pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 11.6% | 19.5% | +7.9pp |
| Two or More Races | 10.2% | 8.8% | -1.4pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 18.1% | 25.2% | +7.1pp |
| English Learners | 15.0% | 22.7% | +7.7pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 13.6% | 27.1% | +13.5pp |
| All Students | 9.7% | 16.2% | +6.5pp |
| Homeless | — | 38.5% | — |
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