Orion Alternative: Most kids here clear the bar, year after year. The question is what happens after that.
Orion Alternative posts 64% meeting the standard, and 41.7% going well past it. Most kids here keep up. Fewer get pushed further. Ask the school what it does for a child who already finds the work easy.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 62 | 42% | 64% | -14.2 | 12.3% | 0.2% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Orion Alternative scores 62 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 84th 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 →
🌱 Building Momentum — This label means the data doesn't clearly sort the school one way or the other — ask what the school is proud of, and what it's working on.
Most rating sites would stop at “64% proficient” and call it done. Orion Alternative deserves a closer read. The school sits in Redwood City, where one in four students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
The seven-year arc
Climbed from the 66th to the 84th percentile since 2019 — past roughly 1000 elementary schools.
The pandemic drop is behind this school: 64% of students meet the standard today, above the 53% who did in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 57% | 45% | 63% | 56% | 69% |
| Grade 4 | 55% | 51% | 38% | 57% | 59% |
| Grade 5 | 62% | 61% | 53% | 46% | 70% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 50% | 49% | 65% | 58% | 80% |
| Grade 4 | 38% | 47% | 47% | 54% | 56% |
| Grade 5 | 54% | 53% | 47% | 42% | 51% |
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 falls 14.3pp across grades; the proficiency floor barely moves. The state average rises 4.5pp over the same span. A school visit and conversation with teachers will tell you more than this number.
The 6 things our score weighs
Ask how the school challenges kids who clear the standard early. The gap between meeting and exceeding is where pacing shows.
- Ask what changes between grade 3 and grade 5 here, and who teaches the older kids.
- 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 Orion Alternative in Redwood City, 42.9% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 30.9% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Orion Alternative outperforms its district average for low-income students by 11.9 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (34.9% Math proficient); Hispanic students (41.4% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 29.7 percentage points for hispanic students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 63 students tested.
6 of 14 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 21.4pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +4.8pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
Grades 4–6 students miss school at roughly twice the rate of TK/K students (21.0% vs 8.2%). Chronic absence here concentrates in the upper grades.
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
What gets spent here
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), 52% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Orion Alternative a good elementary school?
What are Orion Alternative's CAASPP test scores?
How does Orion Alternative rank in California?
Is Orion Alternative getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Orion Alternative?
How does Orion Alternative compare to other schools in Redwood City?
How does Orion Alternative serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 64
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 | 49 | 57% | 12% | 12% | 18% | 69% | +26 |
| Grade 4 | 34 | 32% | 26% | 0% | 41% | 59% | +14 |
| Grade 5 | 63 | 43% | 27% | 14% | 16% | 70% | +22 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 49 | 55% | 24% | 10% | 10% | 80% | +34 |
| Grade 4 | 34 | 29% | 26% | 18% | 26% | 56% | +14 |
| Grade 5 | 63 | 33% | 17% | 16% | 33% | 51% | +15 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 63 | 25% | 27% | 35% | 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 | 63 | 42.9% | +12 | +5 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 58 | 41.4% | +8 | +3 |
| Two or More Races | 17 | 88.2% | +6 | +27 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orion Alternative ← | — | 62 | 41.7% | 64.0% | −14.2 | 0.2% |
| North Star Academy | 0.6 mi | 87 | 67.7% | 92.8% | +1.8 | 0.3% |
| Roy Cloud Elementary | 1.4 mi | 55 | 25.8% | 57.4% | +0.5 | 1.2% |
| Clifford Elementary | 1.3 mi | 49 | 30.5% | 55.6% | −5.0 | 1.1% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 49 | 66 | #1894 | 23.2% | 52.6% | 3.9% | 2.8% | +4.1pp |
| 2022 | 58 | 86 | #826 | 31.6% | 51.0% | 21.7% | 0.8% | +9.8pp |
| 2023 | 48 | 69 | #1746 | 31.2% | 52.1% | 22.2% | 0.5% | -13.8pp |
| 2024 | 57 | 79 | #1200 | 34.0% | 52.2% | 13.2% | 0.3% | -12.9pp |
| 2025 | 62 | 84 | #908 | 41.7% | 64.0% | 12.3% | 0.2% | -14.2pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 5.0% | 10.3% | +5.3pp |
| Male | 1.7% | 12.8% | +11.1pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 4.8% | 25.3% | +20.5pp |
| Two or More Races | 0.0% | 3.9% | +3.9pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 8.8% | 26.5% | +17.7pp |
| English Learners | 4.8% | 19.5% | +14.7pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 8.2% | 29.1% | +20.9pp |
| All Students | 3.4% | 11.7% | +8.3pp |
| Asian | — | 3.7% | — |
| Homeless | — | 31.3% | — |
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