Literacy First Charter: The score is strong. The trajectory is stronger.
Literacy First Charter pairs 51% proficiency with gains that hold up when the same students are tracked two years apart — the rare school that posts both.
Literacy First Charter scores 51 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 73rd 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 →
Most rating sites would stop at “51% proficient” and call it done. Literacy First Charter deserves a closer read. The school sits in El Cajon, where more than half of students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
The headline number: 52.7% of low-income students met the ELA standard — versus 38.2% for the same group statewide.
As a charter, Literacy First Charter enrolls by application, not address — the score reads the same, the enrollment path doesn't.
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 5.4pp across grades; the floor rises 13.3pp. 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.
Literacy First Charter's most underrated number
52.7% 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 what changed — new curriculum, new principal, new program. Momentum has a cause, and a visit will find it.
Where the path goes
The path below follows attendance boundaries — 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.
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.
The community around it
Student demographics
3 more gaps by subject
Subgroups with fewer than 15 students are excluded for privacy. Gaps of less than 3 percentage points are not shown.
Weighted average across tested grades. Subgroups with fewer than 15 students excluded. Data: CDE CAASPP 2024-25.
Subgroup Growth by Grade
Low-income student ELA proficiency rises by 14.2pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +4.3pp.
Subgroups with fewer than 10 tested students per grade are not shown.
Funding Breakdown
Neighborhood Context
Whole Child
Source: CDE SARC, 2024-25
For the data nerdsEvery number on this page
Score factors, grade-level breakdowns, subgroup proficiency, and peer comparisons.
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 | 192 | 25% | 21% | 25% | 29% | 46% | +3 |
| Grade 4 | 198 | 31% | 22% | 22% | 25% | 53% | +8 |
| Grade 5 | 181 | 30% | 29% | 17% | 24% | 60% | +12 |
| Grade 6 | 174 | 20% | 39% | 25% | 17% | 59% | +12 |
| Grade 7 | 165 | 22% | 41% | 21% | 17% | 62% | +15 |
| Grade 8 | 151 | 25% | 46% | 21% | 9% | 70% | +24 |
| Grade 11 | 80 | 40% | 44% | 8% | 9% | 84% | +37 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 192 | 19% | 28% | 29% | 24% | 46% | +1 |
| Grade 4 | 197 | 32% | 22% | 29% | 17% | 54% | +12 |
| Grade 5 | 181 | 25% | 23% | 28% | 24% | 48% | +13 |
| Grade 6 | 173 | 30% | 21% | 25% | 24% | 51% | +16 |
| Grade 7 | 164 | 24% | 27% | 26% | 24% | 51% | +17 |
| Grade 8 | 151 | 34% | 23% | 19% | 25% | 56% | +24 |
| Grade 11 | 79 | 20% | 25% | 18% | 37% | 46% | +22 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 412 | 14% | 26% | 53% | 7% |
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 | 657 | 52.7% | +42 | +14 |
| Asian | 541 | 54.0% | — | −20 |
| White | 318 | 70.1% | +53 | +8 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Literacy First Charter ← | — | 51 | 27.0% | 51.2% | +7.5 | 2.1% |
| Fuerte Elementary | 1.8 mi | 54 | 31.4% | 58.2% | −5.2 | 1.3% |
| Murdock Elementary | 2.8 mi | 52 | 33.2% | 58.3% | −18.3 | 1.2% |
| Kidinnu Academy | 1.8 mi | 48 | 26.1% | 50.1% | −18.3 | 0.3% |
| California average | — | 43 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
- — Scored here as an elementary school — other grade spans appear in the data appendix.