Placer County Pathways Charter: Most kids here clear the bar, year after year. The question is what happens after that.
Placer County Pathways Charter posts 67% meeting the standard, and 27.6% 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 | 48 | 28% | 67% | -11.2 | 18.7% | 2.3% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Placer County Pathways Charter scores 48 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 64th 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 →
🏫 Solid Base — Ask what the school does for a kid who's already meeting the standard with room to spare — steady proficiency across the board doesn't tell you whether the strongest kids are being pushed further.
Most rating sites would stop at “67% proficient” and call it done. Placer County Pathways Charter deserves a closer read. The school sits in Auburn, where more than half of students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
As a charter, Placer County Pathways 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 36th to the 64th percentile since 2019 — past roughly 1400 elementary schools.
The pandemic drop is behind this school: 67% of students meet the standard today, above the 52% who did in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 44% | 59% | 65% | 76% | 70% |
| Grade 4 | 68% | 52% | 67% | 71% | 77% |
| Grade 5 | 50% | 44% | 52% | 52% | 71% |
| Grade 6 | 52% | 67% | 62% | 63% | 74% |
| Grade 7 | 62% | 50% | 71% | 58% | 50% |
| Grade 8 | 45% | 17% | 48% | 80% | 47% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 56% | 59% | 70% | 81% | 70% |
| Grade 4 | 63% | 56% | 50% | 54% | 68% |
| Grade 5 | 29% | 36% | 36% | 48% | 46% |
| Grade 6 | 60% | 50% | 48% | 58% | 65% |
| Grade 7 | 50% | 40% | 57% | 58% | 46% |
| Grade 8 | 53% | 21% | 30% | 53% | 41% |
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 14.5pp 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 5 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 Placer County Pathways Charter in Auburn, 47.8% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 44.0% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Placer County Pathways Charter outperforms its district average for low-income students by 3.8 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (47.8% Math proficient); White students (64.5% ELA proficient). Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 23 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.
Showing up, and staying in class
Where the path goes
Placer County Pathways Charter serves grades K-12 — students can complete their entire K-12 education here, with no school-to-school transitions.
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.
$2,835 per student arrives as federal Title funding — a measure of concentrated need, not school quality.
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), 54% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Placer County Pathways Charter a good elementary school?
What are Placer County Pathways Charter's CAASPP test scores?
How does Placer County Pathways Charter rank in California?
Is Placer County Pathways Charter getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Placer County Pathways Charter?
How does Placer County Pathways Charter compare to other schools in Auburn?
How does Placer County Pathways Charter serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 47
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 | 23 | 48% | 22% | 26% | 4% | 70% | +26 |
| Grade 4 | 22 | 41% | 36% | 9% | 14% | 77% | +32 |
| Grade 5 | 24 | 33% | 38% | 25% | 4% | 71% | +23 |
| Grade 6 | 23 | 39% | 35% | 17% | 9% | 74% | +27 |
| Grade 7 | 24 | 17% | 33% | 25% | 25% | 50% | +2 |
| Grade 8 | 32 | 19% | 28% | 22% | 31% | 47% | +1 |
| Grade 11 | 7 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 23 | 9% | 61% | 26% | 4% | 70% | +24 |
| Grade 4 | 22 | 18% | 50% | 23% | 9% | 68% | +27 |
| Grade 5 | 24 | 17% | 29% | 46% | 8% | 46% | +11 |
| Grade 6 | 23 | 39% | 26% | 30% | 4% | 65% | +30 |
| Grade 7 | 24 | 21% | 25% | 38% | 17% | 46% | +12 |
| Grade 8 | 32 | 22% | 19% | 19% | 41% | 41% | +8 |
| Grade 11 | 7 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 56 | 18% | 36% | 27% | 20% |
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 | 23 | 47.8% | +4 | +10 |
| White | 110 | 64.5% | +3 | +3 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Placer County Pathways Charter ← | — | 48 | 27.6% | 66.9% | −11.2 | 2.3% |
| Bowman Charter | 2.4 mi | 60 | 31.7% | 63.2% | +15.1 | 0.6% |
| Skyridge Elementary | 2.3 mi | 47 | 20.9% | 48.5% | +0.1 | 2.0% |
| EV Cain Middle | 0.2 mi | 34 | 8.4% | 35.6% | −11.0 | 6.0% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 37 | 36 | #3504 | 17.5% | 51.8% | 21.4% | 3.6% | -10.4pp |
| 2022 | 42 | 64 | #2053 | 27.5% | 50.9% | 17.9% | 0.2% | -18.8pp |
| 2023 | 39 | 50 | #2836 | 35.0% | 56.6% | 18.7% | 2.4% | -23.5pp |
| 2024 | 59 | 80 | #1120 | 33.5% | 63.7% | 17.4% | 1.4% | -28.6pp |
| 2025 | 48 | 64 | #2067 | 27.6% | 66.9% | 18.7% | 2.3% | -11.2pp |
- — Scored here as an elementary school — other grade spans appear in the data appendix.
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 13.4% | 18.4% | +5.0pp |
| Male | 26.4% | 19.3% | -7.1pp |
| Asian | 11.1% | — | — |
| Hispanic/Latino | 20.0% | 25.0% | +5.0pp |
| Two or More Races | 35.0% | 32.0% | -3.0pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 23.5% | 23.3% | -0.2pp |
| English Learners | 31.6% | 36.8% | +5.2pp |
| Homeless | 70.0% | 34.8% | -35.2pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 39.1% | 29.7% | -9.4pp |
| All Students | 21.7% | 18.8% | -2.9pp |
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