Lichen K-8: No single number tells this school's story. Here's the honest picture.
Lichen K-8 posts 36% meeting the standard and 14.2% exceeding it, against 43% and 21.3% statewide. The gaps and the bright spots below are the real read.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 40 | 14% | 36% | +5.5 | 26.2% | 3.4% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Lichen K-8 scores 40 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 45th 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 →
📈 On the Rise — Ask how many years the improvement has held, not just the latest one — one strong cohort and a real turnaround can look identical in a single year of data.
Most rating sites would stop at “36% proficient” and call it done. Lichen K-8 deserves a closer read. The school sits in Citrus Heights, where three in five students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
The seven-year arc
Climbed from the 3rd to the 45th percentile since 2019 — past roughly 2200 elementary schools.
Proficiency here is back to its pre-pandemic level — 36% meet the standard, about where the school stood in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 40% | 13% | 35% | 36% | 36% |
| Grade 4 | 44% | 19% | 25% | 25% | 37% |
| Grade 5 | 33% | 31% | 23% | 27% | 42% |
| Grade 6 | 39% | 30% | 35% | 20% | 19% |
| Grade 7 | 46% | 36% | 26% | 31% | 35% |
| Grade 8 | 26% | 16% | 33% | 26% | 36% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 51% | 23% | 38% | 46% | 32% |
| Grade 4 | 35% | 24% | 31% | 36% | 33% |
| Grade 5 | 10% | 7% | 7% | 15% | 37% |
| Grade 6 | 34% | 25% | 25% | 15% | 10% |
| Grade 7 | 30% | 18% | 15% | 24% | 17% |
| Grade 8 | 23% | 12% | 17% | 26% | 23% |
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 rises 6.0pp across grades; the floor rises 6.3pp. The state average rises 4.5pp over the same span. Kids here gain ground the longer they stay — the pattern you want to see. A school visit and conversation with teachers will tell you more than this number.
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 the school follows up when a student starts missing days — chronic absence often starts outside the classroom, not inside it.
- Ask what typically leads to a suspension, and what happens before it gets there.
- 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 Lichen K-8 in Citrus Heights, 26.7% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 29.1% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Lichen K-8 trails its district average for low-income students by 2.3 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (20.0% Math proficient); Hispanic students (30.7% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 14.1 percentage points for disabilities students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 232 students tested.
6 of 14 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 3.2pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +4.5pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
TK/K students miss school at roughly one and a half times the rate of Grades 7–8 students (37.9% vs 21.9%). 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
$1,446 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), 26% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Lichen K-8 a good elementary school?
What are Lichen K-8's CAASPP test scores?
How does Lichen K-8 rank in California?
Is Lichen K-8 getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Lichen K-8?
How does Lichen K-8 compare to other schools in Citrus Heights?
How does Lichen K-8 serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 56
Nearby Middle Schools
2 within ~3 mi · avg 39
Private alternatives nearby
Private schools within ~10 miles. These schools do not participate in state testing and cannot be scored or ranked.
A low score doesn't tell the whole story. Read: Your School Scored Low — Here's What That Actually Means
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 | 53 | 15% | 21% | 32% | 32% | 36% | −8 |
| Grade 4 | 49 | 14% | 22% | 24% | 39% | 37% | −8 |
| Grade 5 | 57 | 21% | 21% | 26% | 32% | 42% | −6 |
| Grade 6 | 59 | 5% | 14% | 36% | 46% | 19% | −28 |
| Grade 7 | 34 | 9% | 26% | 35% | 29% | 35% | −12 |
| Grade 8 | 66 | 9% | 27% | 29% | 35% | 36% | −10 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 53 | 8% | 25% | 30% | 38% | 32% | −14 |
| Grade 4 | 51 | 10% | 24% | 29% | 37% | 33% | −8 |
| Grade 5 | 57 | 18% | 19% | 25% | 39% | 37% | +2 |
| Grade 6 | 60 | 7% | 3% | 18% | 72% | 10% | −25 |
| Grade 7 | 35 | 3% | 14% | 29% | 54% | 17% | −17 |
| Grade 8 | 66 | 12% | 11% | 29% | 48% | 23% | −10 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 123 | 10% | 16% | 59% | 15% |
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 | 232 | 26.7% | −2 | −11 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 137 | 30.7% | −4 | −8 |
| White | 111 | 39.6% | −8 | −22 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lichen K-8 ← | — | 40 | 14.2% | 36.2% | +5.5 | 3.4% |
| William Kaseberg Elementary | 2.4 mi | 65 | 35.9% | 63.2% | +8.4 | 0.8% |
| Creekview Ranch | 2.1 mi | 52 | 34.7% | 59.6% | −20.1 | 3.8% |
| Foothill Oaks Elementary | 2.4 mi | 52 | 29.2% | 53.5% | −6.9 | 3.1% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 19 | 3 | #5360 | 12.1% | 35.4% | 12.0% | 8.7% | -23.6pp |
| 2022 | 23 | 15 | #4854 | 3.6% | 19.6% | 33.8% | 5.0% | +1.7pp |
| 2023 | 21 | 6 | #5379 | 7.5% | 26.6% | 31.3% | 10.0% | -21.3pp |
| 2024 | 33 | 25 | #4301 | 13.5% | 30.8% | 24.8% | 5.5% | -20.0pp |
| 2025 | 40 | 45 | #3184 | 14.2% | 36.2% | 26.2% | 3.4% | +5.5pp |
- — Scored here as an elementary school — other grade spans appear in the data appendix.
- — Low-income students here trail the state average for their group by 11 points in ELA — worth asking how the school is closing that gap.
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 12.6% | 25.7% | +13.1pp |
| Male | 11.5% | 28.2% | +16.7pp |
| Black/African American | 21.1% | 45.5% | +24.4pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 8.8% | 23.6% | +14.8pp |
| Two or More Races | 18.8% | 46.0% | +27.2pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 13.5% | 32.6% | +19.1pp |
| English Learners | 7.3% | 18.8% | +11.5pp |
| Homeless | 23.1% | 58.3% | +35.2pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 14.7% | 30.4% | +15.7pp |
| All Students | 12.0% | 27.0% | +15.0pp |
| Pacific Islander | — | 50.0% | — |
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