Nestor Language Academy Charter: The score is strong. The trajectory is stronger.
Nestor Language Academy Charter pairs 47% proficiency with gains that hold up when the same students are tracked two years apart — the rare school that posts both.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 60 | 23% | 47% | +13.5 | 14.3% | 0.7% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Nestor Language Academy Charter scores 60 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 82nd 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 →
🚀 Growth Engine — Ask how the school tracks each kid's growth year to year, and what happens when a kid stalls instead of gaining.
Most rating sites would stop at “47% proficient” and call it done. Nestor Language Academy Charter deserves a closer read. The school sits in San Diego, 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: +13.5pp separates this year's grade 3 from its grade 5. The state average rises 4.5pp over the same span. Following the same students from 2023 G3 → 2025 G5 points the same way.
As a charter, Nestor Language Academy Charter enrolls by application rather than address. That changes how you get in, but it doesn't change the score.
The seven-year arc
Climbed from the 32nd to the 82nd percentile since 2019 — past roughly 2700 elementary schools.
The pandemic drop is behind this school: 47% of students meet the standard today, above the 42% who did in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 48% | 36% | 41% | 35% | 43% |
| Grade 4 | 36% | 39% | 33% | 47% | 37% |
| Grade 5 | 36% | 49% | 54% | 45% | 66% |
| Grade 6 | 51% | 38% | 39% | 47% | 48% |
| Grade 7 | 63% | 58% | 58% | 45% | 63% |
| Grade 8 | 77% | 48% | 57% | 43% | 58% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 65% | 36% | 47% | 32% | 52% |
| Grade 4 | 43% | 35% | 32% | 37% | 28% |
| Grade 5 | 24% | 42% | 49% | 47% | 56% |
| Grade 6 | 60% | 38% | 34% | 27% | 36% |
| Grade 7 | 56% | 43% | 40% | 36% | 45% |
| Grade 8 | 67% | 28% | 30% | 19% | 33% |
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 7.4pp across grades; the floor rises 22.3pp. 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 5 things our score weighs
Ask what changed — new curriculum, new principal, new program. Momentum has a cause, and a visit will find it.
- Ask how teachers track each child's growth over the year, not just where the class lands on test day.
- 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 Nestor Language Academy Charter in San Diego, 44.5% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 31.1% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Nestor Language Academy Charter outperforms its district average for low-income students by 13.4 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (35.1% Math proficient); Hispanic students (51.1% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 32.9 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 399 students tested.
7 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 rises by 17.9pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +13.4pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
TK/K students miss school at roughly twice the rate of Grades 7–8 students (23.2% vs 9.6%). 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 is estimated from nearby schools in the same district — 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.
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.
$718 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 1,079 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), 30% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Nestor Language Academy Charter a good elementary school?
What are Nestor Language Academy Charter's CAASPP test scores?
How does Nestor Language Academy Charter rank in California?
Is Nestor Language Academy Charter getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Nestor Language Academy Charter?
How does Nestor Language Academy Charter compare to other schools in San Diego?
How does Nestor Language Academy Charter 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 | 118 | 25% | 18% | 30% | 27% | 43% | −0 |
| Grade 4 | 115 | 16% | 22% | 21% | 42% | 37% | −7 |
| Grade 5 | 119 | 33% | 33% | 16% | 18% | 66% | +18 |
| Grade 6 | 116 | 17% | 31% | 28% | 23% | 48% | +2 |
| Grade 7 | 111 | 20% | 43% | 17% | 20% | 63% | +15 |
| Grade 8 | 121 | 16% | 42% | 25% | 17% | 58% | +12 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 118 | 21% | 31% | 27% | 21% | 52% | +6 |
| Grade 4 | 116 | 11% | 16% | 38% | 34% | 28% | −14 |
| Grade 5 | 119 | 34% | 22% | 24% | 19% | 56% | +21 |
| Grade 6 | 116 | 17% | 19% | 26% | 38% | 36% | +1 |
| Grade 7 | 114 | 25% | 20% | 25% | 30% | 45% | +11 |
| Grade 8 | 123 | 20% | 14% | 32% | 35% | 33% | +1 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 242 | 9% | 21% | 58% | 12% |
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 | 399 | 44.5% | +13 | +6 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 666 | 51.1% | +18 | +12 |
| English Learners | 273 | 20.5% | +8 | +10 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nestor Language Academy Charter ← | — | 60 | 23.4% | 47.0% | +13.5 | 0.7% |
| Montgomery (John J.) Elementary | 2.1 mi | 55 | 15.3% | 41.1% | +4.7 | 0.4% |
| Sunset Elementary | 2.2 mi | 48 | 19.3% | 37.2% | −2.9 | 0.9% |
| Loma Verde Elementary | 2.9 mi | 46 | 18.3% | 35.9% | +5.9 | 2.2% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 35 | 32 | #3751 | 16.2% | 41.8% | 1.9% | 0.4% | -26.3pp |
| 2022 | 46 | 71 | #1678 | 16.5% | 39.6% | 32.6% | 0.5% | +9.7pp |
| 2023 | 50 | 73 | #1525 | 19.6% | 42.6% | 21.3% | 0.9% | +7.3pp |
| 2024 | 53 | 74 | #1518 | 19.4% | 40.7% | 13.6% | 0.5% | +12.2pp |
| 2025 | 60 | 82 | #1036 | 23.4% | 47.0% | 14.3% | 0.7% | +13.5pp |
- — Scored here as an elementary school — other grade spans appear in the data appendix.
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 1.6% | 13.7% | +12.1pp |
| Male | 2.1% | 14.6% | +12.5pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 1.8% | 14.3% | +12.5pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 0.9% | 13.8% | +12.9pp |
| English Learners | 1.5% | 16.5% | +15.0pp |
| Homeless | 0.0% | — | — |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 2.0% | 16.1% | +14.1pp |
| All Students | 1.8% | 14.1% | +12.3pp |
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