Lake Forest Elementary: This school runs ahead of the state average. The bar itself is the harder conversation.
Lake Forest posts 47% meeting the standard against 43% statewide — ahead of most, with real headroom above the bar.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 54 | 25% | 47% | +1.0 | 14.0% | 0.5% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Lake Forest Elementary scores 54 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 74th 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 →
🤝 Culture First — Ask whether the low absenteeism and suspension numbers come from what the school does or from the community it serves — both can produce the same numbers, and only a visit tells you which.
Most rating sites would stop at “47% proficient” and call it done. Lake Forest deserves a closer read. The school sits in Lake Forest, where more than half of students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
The seven-year arc
Slipped from the 82nd to the 74th percentile since 2019.
This school hasn't fully recovered from the pandemic: 47% meet the standard today, versus 56% in 2019 — a gap worth asking about on a visit.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 46% | 40% | 40% | 33% | 49% |
| Grade 4 | 58% | 63% | 54% | 53% | 44% |
| Grade 5 | 71% | 53% | 56% | 58% | 52% |
| Grade 6 | 53% | 45% | 49% | 52% | 57% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 52% | 47% | 47% | 47% | 46% |
| Grade 4 | 53% | 57% | 45% | 52% | 43% |
| Grade 5 | 52% | 54% | 46% | 45% | 45% |
| Grade 6 | 37% | 39% | 44% | 46% | 44% |
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 10.1pp across grades; the floor rises 2.5pp. The state average rises 4.5pp over the same span. A school visit and conversation with teachers will tell you more than this number.
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 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 Lake Forest Elementary in Lake Forest, 37.5% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 42.7% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Lake Forest Elementary trails its district average for low-income students by 5.3 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (30.5% Math proficient); Hispanic students (37.5% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 47.9 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 200 students tested.
6 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 falls by 3.3pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +3.1pp.
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 (21.0% vs 13.9%). 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
$191 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 Lake Forest Elementary a good elementary school?
What are Lake Forest Elementary's CAASPP test scores?
How does Lake Forest Elementary rank in California?
Is Lake Forest Elementary getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Lake Forest Elementary?
How does Lake Forest Elementary compare to other schools in Lake Forest?
How does Lake Forest 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 | 79 | 29% | 20% | 19% | 32% | 49% | +6 |
| Grade 4 | 81 | 25% | 20% | 16% | 40% | 44% | −0 |
| Grade 5 | 79 | 19% | 33% | 20% | 28% | 52% | +4 |
| Grade 6 | 96 | 30% | 27% | 16% | 27% | 57% | +11 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 79 | 25% | 20% | 25% | 29% | 46% | −0 |
| Grade 4 | 81 | 19% | 25% | 28% | 28% | 43% | +2 |
| Grade 5 | 82 | 30% | 15% | 24% | 30% | 45% | +10 |
| Grade 6 | 96 | 28% | 16% | 24% | 32% | 44% | +9 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 82 | 15% | 21% | 46% | 18% |
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 | 200 | 37.5% | −5 | −1 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 176 | 37.5% | −4 | −1 |
| White | 68 | 60.3% | −9 | −2 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Forest Elementary ← | — | 54 | 24.5% | 46.6% | +1.0 | 0.5% |
| Philip J. Reilly Elementary | 3 mi | 78 | 57.0% | 81.8% | −8.0 | 0.3% |
| Portola Hills Elementary | 3.3 mi | 78 | 49.4% | 77.8% | +7.4 | 0.3% |
| Oxford Preparatory Academy - South Orange County | 1.3 mi | 78 | 54.5% | 78.7% | +13.5 | 0.2% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 62 | 82 | #971 | 29.6% | 55.6% | 7.7% | 0.1% | +12.4pp |
| 2022 | 57 | 85 | #881 | 29.9% | 52.4% | 20.9% | 0.5% | +10.3pp |
| 2023 | 58 | 83 | #1000 | 25.8% | 48.2% | 20.2% | 0.5% | +7.6pp |
| 2024 | 57 | 79 | #1216 | 27.3% | 48.0% | 15.3% | 1.4% | +11.2pp |
| 2025 | 54 | 74 | #1490 | 24.5% | 46.6% | 14.0% | 0.5% | +1.0pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 9.4% | 15.5% | +6.1pp |
| Male | 6.0% | 12.0% | +6.0pp |
| Asian | 4.5% | 20.7% | +16.2pp |
| Black/African American | 7.7% | 11.1% | +3.4pp |
| White | 0.0% | 2.9% | +2.9pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 10.5% | 16.5% | +6.0pp |
| Two or More Races | 1.9% | 6.4% | +4.5pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 12.4% | 22.0% | +9.6pp |
| English Learners | 9.6% | 18.6% | +9.0pp |
| Homeless | 24.4% | 27.4% | +3.0pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 11.0% | 16.3% | +5.3pp |
| All Students | 7.7% | 13.7% | +6.0pp |
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