Riverbank Language Academy: Kids show up — absenteeism runs far below the state. But math slips between grade 3 and grade 5.
Riverbank Language Academy has real strengths and one number that complicates them. Most rating sites show you one or the other. Both belong on the same page.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 46 | 21% | 48% | -6.3 | 6.6% | 1.4% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Riverbank Language Academy scores 46 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 58th 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 →
🤝 Culture First — Ask whether the low absenteeism and suspension numbers come from what the school does or from the community it serves — both can produce the same numbers, and only a visit tells you which.
Most rating sites would stop at “48% proficient” and call it done. Riverbank Language Academy deserves a closer read. The school sits in Riverbank, where two-thirds of students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
Riverbank Language Academy's low-income kids hit 49.4% 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.
As a charter, Riverbank Language Academy 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 50th to the 58th percentile since 2019 — past roughly 300 elementary schools.
Proficiency here is back to its pre-pandemic level — 48% meet the standard, about where the school stood in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 56% | 53% | 45% | 45% | 48% |
| Grade 4 | 60% | 46% | 39% | 46% | 37% |
| Grade 5 | 59% | 34% | 67% | 56% | 49% |
| Grade 6 | 47% | 54% | 19% | 42% | 71% |
| Grade 7 | 50% | 56% | 60% | 33% | 64% |
| Grade 8 | 54% | 78% | 50% | 61% | 45% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 58% | 53% | 72% | 53% | 58% |
| Grade 4 | 39% | 36% | 31% | 49% | 53% |
| Grade 5 | 34% | 25% | 49% | 47% | 44% |
| Grade 6 | 31% | 27% | 11% | 33% | 41% |
| Grade 7 | 42% | 16% | 30% | 17% | 39% |
| Grade 8 | 27% | 32% | 22% | 39% | 13% |
The story this school is actually telling
chronic absenteeism — versus 17.9% statewide. Attendance is the quietest strong signal a school can post.
math proficiency runs 58% in grade 3 against 44% in grade 5, while reading holds (48% to 49%). The state average rises by +4.5pp over the same span.
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 5.7pp across grades; the proficiency floor barely moves. The state average rises 4.5pp over the same span. The school's 5th graders aren't posting a wider lead than its 3rd graders. One question worth asking on a tour: are the strongest students being pushed, or coasting? A school visit and conversation with teachers will tell you more than this number.
Riverbank Language Academy's most underrated number
49.4% 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 5 things our score weighs
Ask the principal what changes between grade 3 and grade 5. Ask who teaches the older grades, and what the school does when a child starts falling behind.
- Ask what changes between grade 3 and grade 5 here, and who teaches the older kids.
- 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 Riverbank Language Academy in Riverbank, 49.4% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 31.3% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Riverbank Language Academy outperforms its district average for low-income students by 18.1 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (41.6% Math proficient); Hispanic students (51.2% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 27.6 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 251 students tested.
8 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 3.9pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +5.4pp.
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 (8.5% vs 5.1%). 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.
Estimated path based on proximity within the same district. Contact your school district for official feeder information.
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.
$88 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
Transitional kindergarten is offered here — confirmed by actual Census Day enrollment, not just the listed grade span.
On the state's science test (CAST), 22% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Riverbank Language Academy a good elementary school?
What are Riverbank Language Academy's CAASPP test scores?
How does Riverbank Language Academy rank in California?
Is Riverbank Language Academy getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Riverbank Language Academy?
How does Riverbank Language Academy compare to other schools in Riverbank?
How does Riverbank Language Academy serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 41
Nearby High Schools
2 within ~3 mi · avg 37
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 | 67 | 25% | 22% | 30% | 22% | 48% | +4 |
| Grade 4 | 62 | 13% | 24% | 23% | 40% | 37% | −8 |
| Grade 5 | 61 | 20% | 30% | 28% | 23% | 49% | +1 |
| Grade 6 | 51 | 18% | 53% | 22% | 8% | 71% | +24 |
| Grade 7 | 44 | 25% | 39% | 18% | 18% | 64% | +16 |
| Grade 8 | 40 | 0% | 45% | 20% | 35% | 45% | −1 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 67 | 22% | 36% | 24% | 18% | 58% | +13 |
| Grade 4 | 62 | 24% | 29% | 32% | 15% | 53% | +12 |
| Grade 5 | 61 | 23% | 21% | 34% | 21% | 44% | +9 |
| Grade 6 | 51 | 22% | 20% | 39% | 20% | 41% | +6 |
| Grade 7 | 44 | 14% | 25% | 32% | 30% | 39% | +5 |
| Grade 8 | 39 | 0% | 13% | 31% | 56% | 13% | −19 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 101 | 5% | 17% | 66% | 12% |
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 | 251 | 49.4% | +18 | +11 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 303 | 51.2% | +18 | +12 |
| English Learners | 96 | 29.2% | +18 | +19 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riverbank Language Academy ← | — | 46 | 21.3% | 48.3% | −6.3 | 1.4% |
| Crossroads Elementary | 0.9 mi | 48 | 18.9% | 44.9% | +4.7 | 1.4% |
| Stockard Coffee Elementary | 2.9 mi | 38 | 14.3% | 40.5% | −4.7 | 2.7% |
| California Avenue Elementary | 1.6 mi | 37 | 3.1% | 14.9% | +5.1 | 3.9% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 42 | 50 | #2758 | 19.7% | 51.0% | 2.5% | 6.2% | -10.3pp |
| 2022 | 31 | 36 | #3679 | 16.0% | 41.2% | 12.1% | 1.9% | -23.4pp |
| 2023 | 48 | 69 | #1783 | 18.7% | 50.5% | 11.5% | 3.8% | -0.3pp |
| 2024 | 51 | 70 | #1741 | 23.4% | 49.5% | 7.7% | 1.4% | +2.5pp |
| 2025 | 46 | 58 | #2409 | 21.3% | 48.3% | 6.6% | 1.4% | -6.3pp |
- — Scored here as an elementary school — other grade spans appear in the data appendix.
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 2.6% | 6.7% | +4.1pp |
| Male | 2.2% | 4.4% | +2.2pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 2.4% | 5.6% | +3.2pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 0.0% | 11.4% | +11.4pp |
| English Learners | 1.6% | 7.3% | +5.7pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 3.0% | 6.2% | +3.2pp |
| All Students | 2.4% | 5.7% | +3.3pp |
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