Ralph A. Gates DLI Magnet Elementary: The score is middle of the pack. The trajectory isn't.
Ralph A. Gates DLI Magnet sits mid-pack on raw proficiency — and it's climbing faster than most schools anywhere near it — and that holds when you follow the same students across grades.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 51 | 17% | 36% | +5.0 | 8.6% | 0.6% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Ralph A. Gates DLI Magnet 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 →
🚀 Growth Engine — Ask how the school tracks each kid's growth year to year, and what happens when a kid stalls instead of gaining.
Most rating sites would stop at “36% proficient” and call it done. Ralph A. Gates DLI Magnet deserves a closer read. The school sits in Lake Forest, where three in five students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
The headline number: +5.0pp separates this year's grade 3 from its grade 5. The state average rises 4.5pp over the same span. Following the same students from 2023 G3 → 2025 G5 points the same way.
The seven-year arc
Has stayed near the 69th percentile since 2019.
This school hasn't fully recovered from the pandemic: 36% meet the standard today, versus 42% in 2019 — a gap worth asking about on a visit.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 30% | 26% | 22% | 24% | 32% |
| Grade 4 | 41% | 29% | 30% | 28% | 28% |
| Grade 5 | 53% | 32% | 42% | 46% | 45% |
| Grade 6 | 47% | 35% | 37% | 45% | 40% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 42% | 17% | 26% | 33% | 38% |
| Grade 4 | 38% | 34% | 27% | 30% | 35% |
| Grade 5 | 46% | 30% | 32% | 30% | 35% |
| Grade 6 | 40% | 39% | 34% | 45% | 36% |
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 4.9pp across grades; the floor rises 13.7pp. 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 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 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 Ralph A. Gates DLI Magnet Elementary in Lake Forest, 21.3% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 42.7% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Ralph A. Gates DLI Magnet Elementary trails its district average for low-income students by 21.4 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (22.6% Math proficient); Hispanic students (29.2% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 32.8 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 338 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 3.5pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +3.1pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
TK/K students miss school at roughly twice the rate of Grades 4–6 students (13.4% vs 6.5%). 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
$199 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 896 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), 33% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Ralph A. Gates DLI Magnet Elementary a good elementary school?
What are Ralph A. Gates DLI Magnet Elementary's CAASPP test scores?
How does Ralph A. Gates DLI Magnet Elementary rank in California?
Is Ralph A. Gates DLI Magnet Elementary getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Ralph A. Gates DLI Magnet Elementary?
How does Ralph A. Gates DLI Magnet Elementary compare to other schools in Lake Forest?
How does Ralph A. Gates DLI Magnet Elementary serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 75
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 | 133 | 17% | 15% | 20% | 49% | 32% | −12 |
| Grade 4 | 123 | 13% | 15% | 16% | 55% | 28% | −16 |
| Grade 5 | 126 | 21% | 24% | 23% | 32% | 45% | −3 |
| Grade 6 | 123 | 15% | 24% | 28% | 32% | 40% | −7 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 136 | 19% | 19% | 16% | 46% | 38% | −7 |
| Grade 4 | 125 | 13% | 22% | 25% | 40% | 35% | −6 |
| Grade 5 | 127 | 19% | 16% | 32% | 34% | 35% | −1 |
| Grade 6 | 124 | 19% | 17% | 27% | 36% | 36% | +1 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 127 | 13% | 20% | 45% | 22% |
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 | 338 | 21.3% | −21 | −17 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 411 | 29.2% | −12 | −10 |
| English Learners | 177 | 4.0% | −2 | −6 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ralph A. Gates DLI Magnet Elementary ← | — | 51 | 17.0% | 35.6% | +5.0 | 0.6% |
| Oxford Preparatory Academy - South Orange County | 2.4 mi | 78 | 54.5% | 78.7% | +13.5 | 0.2% |
| Oxford Preparatory Academy - Saddleback Valley | 0.9 mi | 78 | 53.1% | 78.7% | +6.7 | 0.1% |
| De Portola Elementary | 2.4 mi | 68 | 44.3% | 72.3% | +4.8 | 1.1% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 55 | 74 | #1450 | 19.8% | 41.6% | 2.8% | 0.2% | +13.5pp |
| 2022 | 41 | 63 | #2144 | 11.1% | 28.1% | 17.7% | 0.4% | +9.8pp |
| 2023 | 44 | 61 | #2246 | 12.1% | 29.8% | 15.5% | 0.1% | +13.3pp |
| 2024 | 51 | 71 | #1681 | 12.7% | 31.9% | 9.2% | 0.4% | +9.7pp |
| 2025 | 51 | 69 | #1761 | 17.0% | 35.6% | 8.6% | 0.6% | +5.0pp |
- — Low-income students here trail the state average for their group by 17 points in ELA — worth asking how the school is closing that gap.
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 2.4% | 8.6% | +6.2pp |
| Male | 3.1% | 7.7% | +4.6pp |
| Asian | 7.1% | 0.0% | -7.1pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 2.8% | 9.5% | +6.7pp |
| Two or More Races | 0.0% | 3.4% | +3.4pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 5.3% | 8.4% | +3.1pp |
| English Learners | 2.7% | 9.3% | +6.6pp |
| Homeless | 4.4% | 9.7% | +5.3pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 2.7% | 10.3% | +7.6pp |
| All Students | 2.7% | 8.2% | +5.5pp |
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