James Garfield Elementary: High scores, real growth, strong attendance. We looked for a catch — we didn't find one.
James Garfield posts 28.7% 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 | 60 | 29% | 55% | +1.0 | 11.7% | 0.9% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
James Garfield Elementary scores 60 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 82nd 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 “55% proficient” and call it done. James Garfield deserves a closer read. The school sits in Selma, where four in five students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
James Garfield's low-income kids hit 57.9% 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
Climbed from the 59th to the 82nd percentile since 2019 — past roughly 1200 elementary schools.
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 | 61% | 36% | 30% | 55% | 62% |
| Grade 4 | 75% | 36% | 59% | 29% | 57% |
| Grade 5 | 74% | 58% | 48% | 58% | 68% |
| Grade 6 | 75% | 61% | 53% | 41% | 56% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 61% | 33% | 42% | 63% | 44% |
| Grade 4 | 41% | 39% | 47% | 48% | 59% |
| Grade 5 | 31% | 45% | 42% | 34% | 40% |
| Grade 6 | 50% | 18% | 56% | 56% | 72% |
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 22.5pp across grades; the floor rises 6.5pp. 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 Garfield's most underrated number
57.9% 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 what the school is working on next. Strong numbers tell you where a school is, not where it's going.
- Ask how teachers track each child's growth over the year, not just where the class lands on test day.
- 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 Garfield Elementary in Selma, 57.9% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 40.2% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. James Garfield Elementary outperforms its district average for low-income students by 17.8 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (54.5% Math proficient); Hispanic students (59.8% ELA proficient). Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 107 students tested.
6 of 12 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 6.9pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +3.7pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
TK/K students miss school at roughly twice the rate of Grades 4–6 students (19.4% vs 8.9%). 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.
Feeder patterns derived from NCES attendance boundary data. Boundaries are approximate and may have changed — verify with your school district for current assignments.
The people teaching here
Pay is set by the district, not the school.
What gets spent here
$1,986 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 229 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), 40% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is James Garfield Elementary a good elementary school?
What are James Garfield Elementary's CAASPP test scores?
How does James Garfield Elementary rank in California?
Is James Garfield Elementary getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at James Garfield Elementary?
How does James Garfield Elementary compare to other schools in Selma?
How does James Garfield 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 | 26 | 38% | 23% | 19% | 19% | 62% | +18 |
| Grade 4 | 30 | 40% | 17% | 20% | 23% | 57% | +12 |
| Grade 5 | 25 | 16% | 52% | 20% | 12% | 68% | +20 |
| Grade 6 | 32 | 9% | 47% | 28% | 16% | 56% | +10 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 27 | 19% | 26% | 33% | 22% | 44% | −1 |
| Grade 4 | 32 | 31% | 28% | 25% | 16% | 59% | +18 |
| Grade 5 | 25 | 28% | 12% | 28% | 32% | 40% | +5 |
| Grade 6 | 32 | 47% | 25% | 6% | 22% | 72% | +37 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 25 | 4% | 36% | 52% | 8% |
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 | 57.9% | +18 | +20 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 102 | 59.8% | +20 | +21 |
| English Learners | 24 | 29.2% | +15 | +19 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| James Garfield Elementary ← | — | 60 | 28.7% | 55.0% | +1.0 | 0.9% |
| Eric White Elementary | 1.1 mi | 39 | 8.2% | 30.6% | −7.9 | 2.2% |
| Woodrow Wilson Elementary | 0.4 mi | 39 | 7.8% | 25.7% | +4.6 | 1.2% |
| Theodore Roosevelt Elementary | 0.4 mi | 37 | 14.2% | 35.7% | −6.2 | 3.6% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 46 | 59 | #2234 | 25.3% | 57.2% | 5.6% | 0.7% | -8.4pp |
| 2022 | 48 | 74 | #1506 | 18.7% | 41.1% | 43.3% | 0.4% | +17.5pp |
| 2023 | 45 | 63 | #2102 | 18.3% | 44.8% | 22.9% | 0.5% | +9.1pp |
| 2024 | 55 | 76 | #1370 | 23.6% | 48.0% | 15.1% | 1.9% | -13.0pp |
| 2025 | 60 | 82 | #1046 | 28.7% | 55.0% | 11.7% | 0.9% | +1.0pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 5.0% | 7.6% | +2.6pp |
| Male | 5.7% | 13.7% | +8.0pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 4.6% | 10.7% | +6.1pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 7.4% | 23.1% | +15.7pp |
| English Learners | 1.1% | 8.9% | +7.8pp |
| Military-Connected | 0.0% | 5.3% | +5.3pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 4.8% | 10.8% | +6.0pp |
| All Students | 5.4% | 10.6% | +5.2pp |
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