Kings River-Hardwick Elementary: Kids show up — absenteeism runs far below the state. But this year's 5th graders test below its 3rd graders.
Kings River-Hardwick has real strengths and one number that complicates them. Most rating sites show you one or the other. Both belong on the same page.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 63 | 40% | 72% | -4.5 | 9.1% | 0.2% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Kings River-Hardwick Elementary scores 63 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 86th 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 →
🏫 Solid Base — Ask what the school does for a kid who's already meeting the standard with room to spare — steady proficiency across the board doesn't tell you whether the strongest kids are being pushed further.
Most rating sites would stop at “72% proficient” and call it done. Kings River-Hardwick deserves a closer read. The school sits in Hanford, where one in four students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
Kings River-Hardwick's low-income kids hit 53.5% 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.
As a charter, Kings River-Hardwick enrolls by application rather than address. That changes how you get in, but it doesn't change the score.
The seven-year arc
Has held the 86th-percentile line every tested year since 2019.
Proficiency here is back to its pre-pandemic level — 72% meet the standard, about where the school stood in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 79% | 55% | 72% | 70% | 73% |
| Grade 4 | 76% | 64% | 56% | 64% | 74% |
| Grade 5 | 70% | 61% | 64% | 58% | 66% |
| Grade 6 | 77% | 68% | 64% | 59% | 52% |
| Grade 7 | 74% | 78% | 70% | 74% | 76% |
| Grade 8 | 61% | 75% | 75% | 73% | 77% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 78% | 72% | 69% | 67% | 75% |
| Grade 4 | 58% | 54% | 60% | 66% | 69% |
| Grade 5 | 72% | 56% | 64% | 59% | 73% |
| Grade 6 | 54% | 55% | 57% | 40% | 55% |
| Grade 7 | 56% | 40% | 59% | 70% | 63% |
| Grade 8 | 57% | 54% | 43% | 62% | 71% |
The story this school is actually telling
chronic absenteeism — versus 17.9% statewide. Attendance is the quietest strong signal a school can post.
proficiency runs 74% in this year's grade 3 against 70% in its grade 5. The state average rises by +4.5pp over the same span.
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 13.5pp across grades; the floor slips 6.7pp. The state average rises 4.5pp over the same span. The school's 5th graders aren't posting a wider lead than its 3rd graders. One question worth asking on a tour: are the strongest students being pushed, or coasting? A school visit and conversation with teachers will tell you more than this number.
Kings River-Hardwick's most underrated number
53.5% 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 5 things our score weighs
Ask the principal what changes between grade 3 and grade 5. Ask who teaches the older grades, and what the school does when a child starts falling behind.
- 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 Kings River-Hardwick Elementary in Hanford, 53.5% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 53.5% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Kings River-Hardwick Elementary outperforms its district average for low-income students by 0.0 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (57.2% Math proficient); White students (76.2% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 16.0 percentage points for low-income students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 159 students tested.
5 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 falls by 18.5pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: -18.5pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
TK/K students miss school at roughly twice the rate of Grades 4–6 students (14.4% vs 7.2%). Chronic absence here concentrates in the earliest grades — worth asking how the school works with new families on attendance.
The people teaching here
What gets spent here
$394 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 860 students, this school is well above 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), 38% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Kings River-Hardwick Elementary a good elementary school?
What are Kings River-Hardwick Elementary's CAASPP test scores?
How does Kings River-Hardwick Elementary rank in California?
Is Kings River-Hardwick Elementary getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Kings River-Hardwick Elementary?
How does Kings River-Hardwick Elementary compare to other schools in Hanford?
How does Kings River-Hardwick 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 | 89 | 44% | 29% | 20% | 7% | 73% | +30 |
| Grade 4 | 78 | 47% | 27% | 18% | 8% | 74% | +30 |
| Grade 5 | 89 | 30% | 36% | 18% | 16% | 66% | +18 |
| Grade 6 | 93 | 20% | 31% | 35% | 13% | 52% | +5 |
| Grade 7 | 91 | 19% | 57% | 21% | 3% | 76% | +28 |
| Grade 8 | 86 | 31% | 45% | 17% | 6% | 77% | +31 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 89 | 40% | 35% | 18% | 7% | 75% | +30 |
| Grade 4 | 78 | 35% | 35% | 26% | 5% | 69% | +28 |
| Grade 5 | 89 | 46% | 27% | 11% | 16% | 73% | +38 |
| Grade 6 | 93 | 31% | 24% | 27% | 18% | 55% | +20 |
| Grade 7 | 91 | 32% | 31% | 24% | 13% | 63% | +29 |
| Grade 8 | 85 | 41% | 29% | 18% | 12% | 71% | +38 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 175 | 10% | 27% | 58% | 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 | 159 | 53.5% | +0 | +15 |
| White | 260 | 76.2% | +0 | +14 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 232 | 62.1% | +0 | +23 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kings River-Hardwick Elementary ← | — | 63 | 40.5% | 71.9% | −4.5 | 0.2% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 58 | 78 | #1222 | 38.6% | 72.1% | 7.2% | 0.1% | -7.5pp |
| 2022 | 48 | 74 | #1484 | 23.9% | 60.1% | 24.3% | 0.6% | -4.6pp |
| 2023 | 52 | 76 | #1368 | 31.0% | 64.1% | 10.8% | 1.2% | -6.7pp |
| 2024 | 61 | 83 | #948 | 33.2% | 63.8% | 5.5% | 0.3% | -10.2pp |
| 2025 | 63 | 86 | #822 | 40.5% | 71.9% | 9.1% | 0.2% | -4.5pp |
- — Scored here as an elementary school — other grade spans appear in the data appendix.
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 6.1% | 10.4% | +4.3pp |
| Male | 8.2% | 6.9% | -1.3pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 11.3% | 11.5% | +0.2pp |
| Two or More Races | 0.0% | 9.8% | +9.8pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 7.4% | 7.4% | +0.0pp |
| English Learners | 5.6% | 8.7% | +3.1pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 13.5% | 14.6% | +1.1pp |
| All Students | 7.2% | 8.6% | +1.4pp |
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