Panama Elementary: No single number tells this school's story. Here's the honest picture.
Panama posts 42% meeting the standard and 18.9% exceeding it, against 43% and 21.3% statewide. The gaps and the bright spots below are the real read.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 38 | 19% | 42% | +0.0 | 16.5% | 1.9% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Panama Elementary scores 38 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 37th 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 “42% proficient” and call it done. Panama deserves a closer read. The school sits in Bakersfield, where four in five students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
Panama's low-income kids hit 49.9% 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 28th to the 37th percentile since 2019 — past roughly 400 elementary schools.
This school hasn't fully recovered from the pandemic: 42% meet the standard today, versus 49% in 2019 — a gap worth asking about on a visit.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 59% | 47% | 48% | 42% | 39% |
| Grade 4 | 53% | 47% | 51% | 39% | 53% |
| Grade 5 | 43% | 48% | 56% | 57% | 44% |
| Grade 6 | 52% | 40% | 49% | 53% | 61% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 59% | 48% | 46% | 46% | 34% |
| Grade 4 | 47% | 45% | 50% | 46% | 55% |
| Grade 5 | 30% | 37% | 33% | 41% | 29% |
| Grade 6 | 22% | 25% | 42% | 28% | 34% |
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 6.9pp across grades; the floor rises 4.8pp. The state average rises 4.5pp over the same span. A school visit and conversation with teachers will tell you more than this number.
Panama's most underrated number
49.9% 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 the school is working on next. Strong numbers tell you where a school is, not where it's going.
- 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 Panama Elementary in Bakersfield, 49.9% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 42.2% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Panama Elementary outperforms its district average for low-income students by 7.6 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (39.0% Math proficient); Hispanic students (47.3% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 36.9 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 368 students tested.
6 of 16 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 6.8pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +3.3pp.
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 (25.1% vs 15.5%). 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
$1,037 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 876 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), 28% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Panama Elementary a good elementary school?
What are Panama Elementary's CAASPP test scores?
How does Panama Elementary rank in California?
Is Panama Elementary getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Panama Elementary?
How does Panama Elementary compare to other schools in Bakersfield?
How does Panama Elementary serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 50
Private alternatives nearby
Private schools within ~10 miles. These schools do not participate in state testing and cannot be scored or ranked.
A low score doesn't tell the whole story. Read: Your School Scored Low — Here's What That Actually Means
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 | 104 | 20% | 19% | 29% | 32% | 39% | −4 |
| Grade 4 | 116 | 29% | 23% | 31% | 16% | 53% | +8 |
| Grade 5 | 113 | 13% | 31% | 21% | 35% | 44% | −4 |
| Grade 6 | 119 | 16% | 45% | 25% | 13% | 61% | +15 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 106 | 12% | 22% | 34% | 32% | 34% | −12 |
| Grade 4 | 116 | 26% | 29% | 28% | 17% | 55% | +14 |
| Grade 5 | 113 | 12% | 17% | 29% | 42% | 29% | −6 |
| Grade 6 | 119 | 19% | 15% | 36% | 29% | 34% | −1 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 114 | 6% | 22% | 63% | 9% |
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 | 368 | 49.9% | +8 | +12 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 309 | 47.3% | +4 | +8 |
| English Learners | 43 | 9.3% | −4 | −1 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Panama Elementary ← | — | 38 | 18.9% | 42.4% | +0.0 | 1.9% |
| W. A. Kendrick Elementary | 3.1 mi | 60 | 35.0% | 59.9% | +15.9 | 0.5% |
| Granite Pointe Elementary | 1.8 mi | 45 | 21.1% | 42.0% | −9.9 | 0.2% |
| Douglas J. Miller Elementary | 1.4 mi | 43 | 18.0% | 42.6% | −17.3 | 1.1% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 34 | 28 | #3953 | 19.6% | 48.5% | 6.8% | 2.0% | -23.1pp |
| 2022 | 41 | 62 | #2202 | 20.5% | 45.2% | 38.7% | 1.5% | -5.2pp |
| 2023 | 44 | 62 | #2172 | 21.2% | 47.5% | 23.3% | 1.3% | -3.0pp |
| 2024 | 46 | 60 | #2300 | 20.0% | 45.0% | 20.4% | 1.2% | +5.1pp |
| 2025 | 38 | 37 | #3603 | 18.9% | 42.4% | 16.5% | 1.9% | +0.0pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 4.5% | 14.3% | +9.8pp |
| Male | 8.5% | 18.5% | +10.0pp |
| Asian | 4.5% | 23.9% | +19.4pp |
| Black/African American | 9.3% | 16.0% | +6.7pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 7.5% | 16.1% | +8.6pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 8.3% | 21.7% | +13.4pp |
| English Learners | 7.3% | 17.7% | +10.4pp |
| Foster Youth | 0.0% | 25.0% | +25.0pp |
| Homeless | 0.0% | — | — |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 7.4% | 17.6% | +10.2pp |
| All Students | 6.7% | 16.4% | +9.7pp |
| Filipino | — | 14.9% | — |
| Two or More Races | — | 28.6% | — |
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