Northside Elementary: High scores, real growth, strong attendance. We looked for a catch — we didn't find one.
Northside posts 24.5% exceeding the standard — versus 21.3% statewide — with climate numbers better than most. That doesn't make it perfect. It makes it worth a visit to find what numbers can't measure.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 60 | 25% | 53% | +3.4 | 9.9% | 3.1% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Northside Elementary scores 60 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 83rd 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 →
💪 Strong All-Around — Ask about what we don't score — class size, electives, the feel of a classroom — strong numbers everywhere on paper don't mean every classroom feels the same.
Most rating sites would stop at “53% proficient” and call it done. Northside deserves a closer read. The school sits in Cool, where one in four students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
Northside's low-income kids hit 50.0% 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
Climbed from the 56th to the 83rd percentile since 2019 — past roughly 1400 elementary schools.
The pandemic drop is behind this school: 53% of students meet the standard today, above the 42% who did in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 38% | 42% | 43% | 49% | 47% |
| Grade 4 | 52% | 67% | 40% | 58% | 44% |
| Grade 5 | 61% | 58% | 75% | 59% | 68% |
| Grade 6 | 63% | 46% | 72% | 63% | 57% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 38% | 58% | 43% | 68% | 60% |
| Grade 4 | 40% | 52% | 32% | 63% | 52% |
| Grade 5 | 23% | 53% | 46% | 33% | 46% |
| Grade 6 | 43% | 37% | 58% | 42% | 50% |
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 9.7pp across grades; the floor rises 20.9pp. 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 the school is working on next. Strong numbers tell you where a school is, not where it's going.
- 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 Northside Elementary in Cool, 50.0% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 37.4% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Northside Elementary outperforms its district average for low-income students by 12.6 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (51.5% Math proficient); White students (54.7% ELA proficient). Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 22 students tested.
7 of 12 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 9.1pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +4.2pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
TK/K students miss school at roughly twice the rate of Grades 4–6 students (14.5% vs 8.1%). 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 road from this school ends at Golden Sierra Junior Senior High, which teaches 5 AP subjects. That number describes past cohorts — a child starting here today would reach Golden Sierra Junior Senior High around 2035, and 10 years is a long time for a school to hold still, and by the state's 2023 count 43% of Golden Sierra Junior Senior High's graduates enrolled in college somewhere, UC or not.
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.
$4 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), 46% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Northside Elementary a good elementary school?
What are Northside Elementary's CAASPP test scores?
How does Northside Elementary rank in California?
Is Northside Elementary getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Northside Elementary?
How does Northside Elementary compare to other schools in Cool?
How does Northside 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 | 30 | 20% | 27% | 17% | 37% | 47% | +3 |
| Grade 4 | 41 | 22% | 22% | 32% | 24% | 44% | −1 |
| Grade 5 | 37 | 30% | 38% | 19% | 14% | 68% | +20 |
| Grade 6 | 28 | 25% | 32% | 25% | 18% | 57% | +11 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 30 | 27% | 33% | 27% | 13% | 60% | +14 |
| Grade 4 | 42 | 19% | 33% | 31% | 17% | 52% | +11 |
| Grade 5 | 37 | 30% | 16% | 43% | 11% | 46% | +11 |
| Grade 6 | 28 | 25% | 25% | 39% | 11% | 50% | +15 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 37 | 11% | 35% | 46% | 8% |
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 | 22 | 50.0% | +13 | +12 |
| White | 95 | 54.7% | +11 | −7 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northside Elementary ← | — | 60 | 24.5% | 52.8% | +3.4 | 3.1% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 45 | 56 | #2419 | 15.1% | 41.9% | 11.7% | 0.6% | +4.3pp |
| 2022 | 49 | 75 | #1424 | 19.4% | 54.9% | 23.5% | 0.7% | +5.3pp |
| 2023 | 47 | 67 | #1896 | 12.5% | 46.3% | 27.2% | 1.5% | +17.9pp |
| 2024 | 46 | 59 | #2344 | 18.5% | 54.9% | 17.1% | 1.2% | -12.2pp |
| 2025 | 60 | 83 | #1001 | 24.5% | 52.8% | 9.9% | 3.1% | +3.4pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 9.9% | 9.2% | -0.7pp |
| Male | 13.5% | 8.4% | -5.1pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 8.8% | 10.2% | +1.4pp |
| Two or More Races | 22.2% | 0.0% | -22.2pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 25.0% | 15.1% | -9.9pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 19.6% | 12.6% | -7.0pp |
| All Students | 11.7% | 8.8% | -2.9pp |
| Filipino | — | 5.4% | — |
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