John McCandless Charter: Most kids here clear the bar, year after year. The question is what happens after that.
John McCandless Charter posts 57% meeting the standard, and 30.3% 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 | 44 | 30% | 57% | -17.9 | 19.9% | 3.2% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
John McCandless Charter scores 44 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 53rd 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 “57% proficient” and call it done. John McCandless Charter deserves a closer read. The school sits in Stockton, where more than half of students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
As a charter, John McCandless Charter enrolls by application rather than address. That changes how you get in, but it doesn't change the score.
The seven-year arc
Slipped from the 86th to the 53rd percentile since 2019.
This school hasn't fully recovered from the pandemic: 57% meet the standard today, versus 73% in 2019 — a gap worth asking about on a visit.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 71% | 56% | 57% | 63% | 56% |
| Grade 4 | 75% | 47% | 43% | 56% | 69% |
| Grade 5 | 69% | 53% | 54% | 42% | 47% |
| Grade 6 | 76% | 48% | 58% | 37% | 52% |
| Grade 7 | 80% | 55% | 35% | 57% | 47% |
| Grade 8 | — | 47% | 46% | 25% | 49% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 77% | 64% | 62% | 54% | 63% |
| Grade 4 | 81% | 42% | 37% | 49% | 69% |
| Grade 5 | 65% | 58% | 41% | 33% | 36% |
| Grade 6 | 74% | 35% | 51% | 26% | 41% |
| Grade 7 | 70% | 41% | 23% | 43% | 30% |
| Grade 8 | — | 31% | 30% | 18% | 24% |
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 22.7pp across grades; the floor slips 9.4pp. 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 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 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 John McCandless Charter in Stockton, 43.5% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 37.7% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. John McCandless Charter outperforms its district average for low-income students by 5.8 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (32.7% Math proficient); Hispanic students (46.7% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 9.5 percentage points for low-income students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 168 students tested.
10 of 16 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 1.5pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: -6.7pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
Grades 7–8 students miss school at roughly twice the rate of Grades 4–6 students (30.1% vs 15.2%). Chronic absence here concentrates in the upper grades.
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
$878 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), 35% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is John McCandless Charter a good elementary school?
What are John McCandless Charter's CAASPP test scores?
How does John McCandless Charter rank in California?
Is John McCandless Charter getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at John McCandless Charter?
How does John McCandless Charter compare to other schools in Stockton?
How does John McCandless Charter serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 58
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 | 31% | 25% | 17% | 27% | 56% | +13 |
| Grade 4 | 42 | 55% | 14% | 10% | 21% | 69% | +24 |
| Grade 5 | 47 | 9% | 38% | 17% | 36% | 47% | −1 |
| Grade 6 | 46 | 13% | 39% | 30% | 17% | 52% | +6 |
| Grade 7 | 47 | 19% | 28% | 28% | 26% | 47% | −1 |
| Grade 8 | 45 | 13% | 36% | 24% | 27% | 49% | +3 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 48 | 25% | 38% | 21% | 17% | 63% | +17 |
| Grade 4 | 42 | 48% | 21% | 17% | 14% | 69% | +27 |
| Grade 5 | 47 | 15% | 21% | 36% | 28% | 36% | +1 |
| Grade 6 | 46 | 17% | 24% | 30% | 28% | 41% | +6 |
| Grade 7 | 47 | 17% | 13% | 26% | 45% | 30% | −4 |
| Grade 8 | 45 | 9% | 16% | 31% | 44% | 24% | −8 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 92 | 9% | 26% | 60% | 5% |
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 | 168 | 43.5% | +6 | +5 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 150 | 46.7% | +8 | +8 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| John McCandless Charter ← | — | 44 | 30.3% | 56.6% | −17.9 | 3.2% |
| Brookside | 2 mi | 69 | 44.5% | 70.1% | −10.6 | 1.8% |
| Aspire River Oaks Charter | 3 mi | 58 | 29.7% | 59.8% | −15.0 | 0.1% |
| Commodore Stockton Skills | 2.1 mi | 46 | 18.2% | 42.4% | −7.3 | 2.4% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 66 | 86 | #748 | 42.7% | 72.9% | 4.8% | 4.6% | -7.3pp |
| 2022 | 44 | 68 | #1849 | 25.2% | 53.3% | 27.8% | 4.0% | -4.4pp |
| 2023 | 42 | 57 | #2468 | 20.8% | 49.2% | 21.9% | 4.3% | -11.8pp |
| 2024 | 35 | 31 | #3942 | 22.8% | 49.5% | 16.5% | 3.4% | -20.6pp |
| 2025 | 44 | 53 | #2680 | 30.3% | 56.6% | 19.9% | 3.2% | -17.9pp |
- — Scored here as an elementary school — other grade spans appear in the data appendix.
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 6.1% | 16.4% | +10.3pp |
| Male | 3.7% | 23.4% | +19.7pp |
| Asian | 10.7% | 3.2% | -7.5pp |
| Black/African American | 9.5% | 44.4% | +34.9pp |
| White | 0.0% | 14.3% | +14.3pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 4.9% | 20.9% | +16.0pp |
| Two or More Races | 4.8% | 15.9% | +11.1pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 9.1% | 29.0% | +19.9pp |
| English Learners | 13.8% | 18.8% | +5.0pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 7.3% | 25.6% | +18.3pp |
| All Students | 4.7% | 20.1% | +15.4pp |
| Homeless | — | 44.4% | — |
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