Merced Elementary: Two in five kids exceed the standard. But math slips between grade 3 and grade 5.
Merced is one of the strongest elementary schools in West Covina by raw achievement. The catch worth understanding: the cohort doesn't gain ground year-over-year.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 62 | 47% | 69% | -6.5 | 6.7% | 0.4% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Merced Elementary scores 62 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 85th 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 “69% proficient” and call it done. Merced deserves a closer read. The school sits in West Covina, where three in four students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
Merced's low-income kids hit 61.6% 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.
The seven-year arc
Has held the 85th-percentile line every tested year since 2019.
Proficiency here is back to its pre-pandemic level — 69% meet the standard, about where the school stood in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 63% | 66% | 67% | 78% | 63% |
| Grade 4 | 74% | 72% | 63% | 68% | 70% |
| Grade 5 | 69% | 66% | 62% | 69% | 66% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 65% | 64% | 76% | 86% | 78% |
| Grade 4 | 72% | 64% | 66% | 66% | 73% |
| Grade 5 | 69% | 63% | 64% | 65% | 62% |
The story this school is actually telling
of students scored in the top band on the state test. The California average is 21.3%.
math proficiency runs 78% in grade 3 against 62% in grade 5, while reading holds (63% to 66%). 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 5.3pp across grades; the floor rises 3.3pp. 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.
Merced's most underrated number
61.6% 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 6 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 Merced Elementary in West Covina, 61.6% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 43.7% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Merced Elementary outperforms its district average for low-income students by 17.8 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (67.1% Math proficient); Hispanic students (60.0% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 34.6 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 255 students tested.
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 2.0pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +7.0pp.
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 (10.6% vs 6.4%). 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.
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
These measure different things: this figure is spending attributed to this campus, while district-wide figures also include central administration, districtwide programs, and the state's pension contributions made on the district's behalf — costs that never get assigned to a single school. The district number runs higher at nearly every school, not just this one.
$987 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), 50% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Merced Elementary a good elementary school?
What are Merced Elementary's CAASPP test scores?
How does Merced Elementary rank in California?
Is Merced Elementary getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Merced Elementary?
How does Merced Elementary compare to other schools in West Covina?
How does Merced Elementary serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 63
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 | 113 | 46% | 17% | 24% | 13% | 63% | +19 |
| Grade 4 | 96 | 50% | 20% | 19% | 11% | 70% | +25 |
| Grade 5 | 118 | 41% | 25% | 18% | 16% | 66% | +18 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 116 | 53% | 25% | 12% | 9% | 78% | +33 |
| Grade 4 | 96 | 46% | 27% | 20% | 7% | 73% | +31 |
| Grade 5 | 119 | 46% | 16% | 21% | 17% | 62% | +27 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 119 | 18% | 32% | 38% | 13% |
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 | 255 | 61.6% | +18 | +23 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 220 | 60.0% | +18 | +21 |
| Asian | 76 | 76.3% | +8 | +2 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Merced Elementary ← | — | 62 | 47.0% | 68.7% | −6.5 | 0.4% |
| Manzanita Elementary | 2.8 mi | 70 | 34.3% | 67.3% | +0.8 | 0.1% |
| Grovecenter Elementary | 2.1 mi | 62 | 27.2% | 53.4% | +20.1 | 0.4% |
| Mesa Elementary | 2 mi | 58 | 38.0% | 63.6% | −2.5 | 0.5% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 70 | 91 | #516 | 41.5% | 68.7% | 3.2% | 0.2% | +5.5pp |
| 2022 | 60 | 87 | #728 | 40.9% | 66.0% | 12.9% | 0.2% | -0.6pp |
| 2023 | 57 | 82 | #1038 | 40.7% | 66.2% | 12.1% | 0.2% | -8.3pp |
| 2024 | 68 | 90 | #576 | 45.5% | 71.7% | 7.1% | 0.3% | -15.0pp |
| 2025 | 62 | 85 | #862 | 47.0% | 68.7% | 6.7% | 0.4% | -6.5pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 3.2% | 6.8% | +3.6pp |
| Male | 3.1% | 5.6% | +2.5pp |
| Asian | 0.0% | 1.3% | +1.3pp |
| Black/African American | 13.3% | — | — |
| White | 0.0% | 0.0% | +0.0pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 3.4% | 8.8% | +5.4pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 2.2% | 13.6% | +11.4pp |
| English Learners | 2.6% | 6.2% | +3.6pp |
| Foster Youth | 25.0% | — | — |
| Homeless | 3.9% | 18.8% | +14.9pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 3.5% | 7.3% | +3.8pp |
| All Students | 3.1% | 6.2% | +3.1pp |
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