Jefferson Academy: The score is strong. The trajectory is stronger.
Jefferson Academy pairs 57% proficiency with gains that hold up when the same students are tracked two years apart — the rare school that posts both.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 60 | 26% | 57% | +7.0 | 5.0% | 0.9% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Jefferson Academy scores 60 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 83rd 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 →
🚀 Growth Engine — Ask how the school tracks each kid's growth year to year, and what happens when a kid stalls instead of gaining.
Most rating sites would stop at “57% proficient” and call it done. Jefferson Academy deserves a closer read. The school sits in Hanford, where two in five students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
Jefferson Academy's low-income kids hit 61.5% 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 held the 83rd-percentile line every tested year since 2019.
This school hasn't fully recovered from the pandemic: 57% meet the standard today, versus 61% in 2019 — a gap worth asking about on a visit.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 65% | 57% | 35% | 69% | 50% |
| Grade 4 | 55% | 71% | 60% | 53% | 65% |
| Grade 5 | 60% | 75% | 54% | 61% | 59% |
| Grade 6 | 79% | 65% | 63% | 71% | 67% |
| Grade 7 | 86% | 63% | 71% | 74% | 84% |
| Grade 8 | 90% | 65% | 76% | 75% | 79% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 69% | 49% | 40% | 69% | 46% |
| Grade 4 | 58% | 67% | 64% | 53% | 68% |
| Grade 5 | 58% | 45% | 49% | 65% | 51% |
| Grade 6 | 71% | 58% | 47% | 51% | 60% |
| Grade 7 | 49% | 41% | 54% | 53% | 67% |
| Grade 8 | 87% | 45% | 59% | 65% | 65% |
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 4.9pp across grades; the floor rises 9.0pp. The state average rises 4.5pp over the same span. A school visit and conversation with teachers will tell you more than this number.
Jefferson Academy's most underrated number
61.5% 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 changed — new curriculum, new principal, new program. Momentum has a cause, and a visit will find it.
- 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 Jefferson Academy in Hanford, 61.5% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 46.8% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Jefferson Academy outperforms its district average for low-income students by 14.6 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (49.2% Math proficient); Hispanic students (66.4% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 7.3 percentage points for low-income students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 179 students tested.
7 of 13 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 6.0pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +2.0pp.
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.
$83 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
On the state's science test (CAST), 43% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Jefferson Academy a good elementary school?
What are Jefferson Academy's CAASPP test scores?
How does Jefferson Academy rank in California?
Is Jefferson Academy getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Jefferson Academy?
How does Jefferson Academy compare to other schools in Hanford?
How does Jefferson Academy serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 52
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 | 48 | 23% | 27% | 21% | 29% | 50% | +7 |
| Grade 4 | 57 | 40% | 25% | 28% | 7% | 65% | +20 |
| Grade 5 | 61 | 18% | 41% | 26% | 15% | 59% | +11 |
| Grade 6 | 60 | 23% | 43% | 27% | 7% | 67% | +20 |
| Grade 7 | 63 | 29% | 56% | 6% | 10% | 84% | +36 |
| Grade 8 | 63 | 24% | 56% | 16% | 5% | 79% | +33 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 48 | 17% | 29% | 38% | 17% | 46% | +0 |
| Grade 4 | 57 | 33% | 35% | 25% | 7% | 68% | +27 |
| Grade 5 | 61 | 25% | 26% | 26% | 23% | 51% | +16 |
| Grade 6 | 60 | 33% | 27% | 23% | 17% | 60% | +25 |
| Grade 7 | 63 | 43% | 24% | 16% | 17% | 67% | +33 |
| Grade 8 | 63 | 38% | 27% | 25% | 10% | 65% | +33 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 124 | 14% | 29% | 53% | 4% |
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 | 179 | 61.5% | +15 | +23 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 298 | 66.4% | +16 | +28 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jefferson Academy ← | — | 60 | 26.0% | 56.5% | +7.0 | 0.9% |
| Monroe Elementary | 0.9 mi | 52 | 18.1% | 46.4% | +15.1 | 1.2% |
| Lee Richmond Elementary | 1.2 mi | 52 | 22.0% | 46.4% | +19.7 | 3.0% |
| Frontier Elementary | 2.1 mi | 52 | 24.9% | 51.7% | −1.8 | 2.7% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 56 | 75 | #1376 | 29.1% | 60.7% | 1.6% | 1.3% | -7.6pp |
| 2022 | 57 | 84 | #892 | 28.5% | 60.8% | 20.9% | 0.6% | +6.8pp |
| 2023 | 56 | 81 | #1100 | 22.1% | 50.4% | 7.6% | 0.8% | +14.1pp |
| 2024 | 66 | 88 | #681 | 31.4% | 61.8% | 4.9% | 1.2% | -5.6pp |
| 2025 | 60 | 83 | #991 | 26.0% | 56.5% | 5.0% | 0.9% | +7.0pp |
- — Scored here as an elementary school — other grade spans appear in the data appendix.
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 1.3% | 2.8% | +1.5pp |
| Male | 1.9% | 4.8% | +2.9pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 1.0% | 3.5% | +2.5pp |
| Two or More Races | 0.0% | 5.6% | +5.6pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 0.0% | 4.9% | +4.9pp |
| English Learners | 0.8% | 2.7% | +1.9pp |
| Military-Connected | 0.0% | 5.9% | +5.9pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 2.0% | 4.1% | +2.1pp |
| All Students | 1.5% | 3.8% | +2.3pp |
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