Santa Cruz Gardens Elementary: This school runs ahead of the state average. The bar itself is the harder conversation.
Santa Cruz Gardens posts 43% meeting the standard against 43% statewide — ahead of most, with real headroom above the bar.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 52 | 20% | 43% | +2.4 | 11.3% | 0.6% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Santa Cruz Gardens Elementary scores 52 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 70th 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 “43% proficient” and call it done. Santa Cruz Gardens deserves a closer read. The school sits in Santa Cruz, 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
Has held the 70th-percentile line every tested year since 2019.
This school hasn't fully recovered from the pandemic: 43% meet the standard today, versus 58% in 2019 — a gap worth asking about on a visit.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 54% | 18% | 25% | 36% | 38% |
| Grade 4 | 65% | 42% | 40% | 41% | 57% |
| Grade 5 | 61% | 59% | 61% | 46% | 55% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 66% | 27% | 45% | 36% | 38% |
| Grade 4 | 60% | 45% | 46% | 56% | 46% |
| Grade 5 | 45% | 48% | 46% | 46% | 25% |
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 3.9pp across grades; the floor rises 17.3pp. 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 how the school challenges kids who clear the standard early. The gap between meeting and exceeding is where pacing shows.
- 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 Santa Cruz Gardens Elementary in Santa Cruz, 26.8% of hispanic students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 37.4% district-wide and 38.8% statewide. Santa Cruz Gardens Elementary trails its district average for hispanic students by 10.6 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Hispanic students (14.3% Math proficient); White students (64.5% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 9.5 percentage points for hispanic students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 41 students tested.
5 of 11 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
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.
$670 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 214 students, this school is much smaller than 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), 44% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Santa Cruz Gardens Elementary a good elementary school?
What are Santa Cruz Gardens Elementary's CAASPP test scores?
How does Santa Cruz Gardens Elementary rank in California?
Is Santa Cruz Gardens Elementary getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Santa Cruz Gardens Elementary?
How does Santa Cruz Gardens Elementary compare to other schools in Santa Cruz?
How does Santa Cruz Gardens Elementary serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 61
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 | 32 | 22% | 16% | 25% | 38% | 38% | −6 |
| Grade 4 | 28 | 29% | 29% | 18% | 25% | 57% | +12 |
| Grade 5 | 31 | 26% | 29% | 23% | 23% | 55% | +7 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 32 | 6% | 31% | 28% | 34% | 38% | −8 |
| Grade 4 | 28 | 29% | 18% | 25% | 29% | 46% | +5 |
| Grade 5 | 32 | 9% | 16% | 47% | 28% | 25% | −10 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 32 | 13% | 31% | 47% | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hispanic/Latino | 41 | 26.8% | −11 | −12 |
| White | 31 | 64.5% | +2 | +3 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Cruz Gardens Elementary ← | — | 52 | 20.1% | 43.1% | +2.4 | 0.6% |
| Mountain Elementary | 2.2 mi | 64 | 31.2% | 65.2% | −12.3 | 0.3% |
| Santa Cruz City Elementary Alternative Education-M | 2.6 mi | 62 | 30.9% | 57.0% | +12.2 | 0.3% |
| Happy Valley Elementary | 1.6 mi | 58 | 41.0% | 80.4% | −0.4 | 1.1% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 55 | 73 | #1460 | 31.3% | 58.2% | 7.8% | 1.0% | -7.1pp |
| 2022 | 56 | 83 | #953 | 16.1% | 39.9% | 30.2% | 0.4% | +30.5pp |
| 2023 | 56 | 80 | #1134 | 22.6% | 43.8% | 24.4% | 1.2% | +18.0pp |
| 2024 | 55 | 77 | #1337 | 23.4% | 43.3% | 18.2% | 0.3% | +10.1pp |
| 2025 | 52 | 70 | #1708 | 20.1% | 43.1% | 11.3% | 0.6% | +2.4pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 7.7% | 9.1% | +1.4pp |
| Male | 7.6% | 11.1% | +3.5pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 8.9% | 14.9% | +6.0pp |
| Two or More Races | 6.3% | 6.7% | +0.4pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 10.2% | 9.1% | -1.1pp |
| English Learners | 15.6% | 17.2% | +1.6pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 12.0% | 13.4% | +1.4pp |
| All Students | 7.7% | 10.2% | +2.5pp |
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