Oak Creek Elementary: The score is strong. The trajectory is stronger.
Oak Creek pairs 57% 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 | 51 | 28% | 57% | +3.9 | 17.4% | 1.2% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Oak Creek Elementary scores 51 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 69th 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 “57% proficient” and call it done. Oak Creek deserves a closer read. The school sits in Irvine, where one in four students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
Oak Creek's low-income kids hit 52.4% 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
Slipped from the 91st to the 69th percentile since 2019.
This school hasn't fully recovered from the pandemic: 57% meet the standard today, versus 68% in 2019 — a gap worth asking about on a visit.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 63% | 60% | 63% | 44% | 56% |
| Grade 4 | 69% | 74% | 65% | 56% | 57% |
| Grade 5 | 80% | 70% | 76% | 72% | 63% |
| Grade 6 | 71% | 69% | 68% | 76% | 62% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 63% | 64% | 69% | 54% | 55% |
| Grade 4 | 69% | 64% | 60% | 59% | 52% |
| Grade 5 | 68% | 48% | 55% | 50% | 57% |
| Grade 6 | 61% | 56% | 62% | 69% | 66% |
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 3.3pp across grades; the floor rises 6.0pp. 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.
Oak Creek's most underrated number
52.4% 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 what changed — new curriculum, new principal, new program. Momentum has a cause, and a visit will find it.
- 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 Oak Creek Elementary in Irvine, 52.4% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 58.6% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Oak Creek Elementary trails its district average for low-income students by 6.2 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (41.6% Math proficient); White students (57.9% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 32.9 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 164 students tested.
5 of 15 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 1.9pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +6.0pp.
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 (25.7% vs 14.8%). 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
$213 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 963 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), 50% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Oak Creek Elementary a good elementary school?
What are Oak Creek Elementary's CAASPP test scores?
How does Oak Creek Elementary rank in California?
Is Oak Creek Elementary getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Oak Creek Elementary?
How does Oak Creek Elementary compare to other schools in Irvine?
How does Oak Creek Elementary serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 85
Nearby High Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 70
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 | 131 | 31% | 25% | 18% | 25% | 56% | +13 |
| Grade 4 | 127 | 25% | 32% | 20% | 23% | 57% | +12 |
| Grade 5 | 136 | 35% | 28% | 16% | 21% | 63% | +15 |
| Grade 6 | 117 | 32% | 30% | 23% | 15% | 62% | +15 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 139 | 25% | 30% | 22% | 23% | 55% | +10 |
| Grade 4 | 132 | 17% | 35% | 32% | 17% | 52% | +10 |
| Grade 5 | 145 | 34% | 23% | 24% | 19% | 57% | +22 |
| Grade 6 | 122 | 38% | 29% | 22% | 11% | 66% | +31 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 145 | 27% | 23% | 37% | 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 | 164 | 52.4% | −6 | +14 |
| White | 209 | 57.9% | −12 | −4 |
| Asian | 186 | 68.3% | −12 | −6 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oak Creek Elementary ← | — | 51 | 27.8% | 56.6% | +3.9 | 1.2% |
| Deerfield Elementary | 2 mi | 88 | 55.7% | 75.7% | +9.1 | 0.9% |
| Eastshore Elementary | 1.1 mi | 85 | 61.1% | 79.4% | +10.7 | 0.7% |
| Turtle Rock Elementary | 2.4 mi | 82 | 62.8% | 81.5% | +3.1 | 0.5% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 71 | 91 | #482 | 42.7% | 68.5% | 7.4% | 0.2% | +11.2pp |
| 2022 | 55 | 82 | #1014 | 32.6% | 63.4% | 18.3% | 0.2% | -3.2pp |
| 2023 | 61 | 85 | #853 | 36.0% | 64.5% | 18.0% | 0.5% | -0.1pp |
| 2024 | 55 | 77 | #1326 | 29.0% | 55.9% | 15.4% | 0.6% | +11.8pp |
| 2025 | 51 | 69 | #1803 | 27.8% | 56.6% | 17.4% | 1.2% | +3.9pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 6.6% | 15.9% | +9.3pp |
| Male | 8.2% | 18.7% | +10.5pp |
| Asian | 8.2% | 12.5% | +4.3pp |
| Black/African American | 0.0% | 42.1% | +42.1pp |
| Filipino | 9.1% | — | — |
| White | 0.0% | 9.5% | +9.5pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 4.6% | 20.4% | +15.8pp |
| Two or More Races | 8.0% | 16.4% | +8.4pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 11.5% | 20.8% | +9.3pp |
| English Learners | 9.5% | 18.7% | +9.2pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 9.5% | 26.5% | +17.0pp |
| All Students | 7.4% | 17.4% | +10.0pp |
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