Surfside Academy: The scores are below where anyone wants them. Here's what they don't tell you.
Surfside Academy posts low test scores — and low-income students here beat the state average for their group by 6 points in ELA. If this is your zoned school, the numbers below are where to start a conversation, not where to end one.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 30 | 5% | 36% | — | 23.0% | 1.4% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Surfside Academy scores 30 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 16th 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 “36% proficient” and call it done. Surfside Academy deserves a closer read. The school sits in Oceanside, where two-thirds of students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
Test scores are one lens, and at this school they're a rough one right now. The sections below show the fuller picture — including the parts that are working.
The seven-year arc
Slipped from the 37th to the 16th percentile since 2022.
| Grade | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5 | — | 38% | — | 64% |
| Grade 6 | 45% | 69% | 21% | — |
| Grade 7 | 62% | 29% | 50% | 35% |
| Grade 8 | 67% | 53% | — | 67% |
| Grade 11 | 35% | 49% | 30% | 53% |
| Grade | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5 | — | 21% | — | 9% |
| Grade 6 | 24% | 54% | 13% | — |
| Grade 7 | 43% | 18% | 33% | 22% |
| Grade 8 | 40% | 18% | — | 39% |
| Grade 11 | 9% | 9% | 7% | 21% |
The 5 things our score weighs
Ask what changed in the last two years, and what the school is asking families for. Growth shows up in these numbers a year or two after it shows up in classrooms.
- Ask how the school follows up when a student starts missing days — chronic absence often starts outside the classroom, not inside it.
- 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 Surfside Academy in Oceanside, 44.3% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 34.9% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Surfside Academy outperforms its district average for low-income students by 9.4 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (20.0% Math proficient); Hispanic students (47.6% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 13.9 percentage points for low-income students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 70 students tested.
10 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.
Showing up, and staying in class
Grades 7–8 students miss school at roughly one and a half times the rate of Grades 4–6 students (34.0% vs 20.0%). Chronic absence here concentrates in the upper grades.
Where the path goes
Surfside Academy 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
$405 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 234 students, this school is much smaller than the typical California elementary school (≈480).
On the state's science test (CAST), 31% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Surfside Academy a good elementary school?
What are Surfside Academy's CAASPP test scores?
How does Surfside Academy rank in California?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Surfside Academy?
How does Surfside Academy compare to other schools in Oceanside?
How does Surfside Academy serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 55
Nearby Middle Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 35
Nearby High Schools
2 within ~3 mi · avg 27
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 | 8 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Grade 4 | 8 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Grade 5 | 11 | 9% | 55% | 18% | 18% | 64% | +16 |
| Grade 6 | 7 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Grade 7 | 23 | 4% | 30% | 35% | 30% | 35% | −13 |
| Grade 8 | 18 | 22% | 44% | 11% | 22% | 67% | +21 |
| Grade 11 | 62 | 23% | 31% | 18% | 29% | 53% | +6 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 8 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Grade 4 | 8 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Grade 5 | 11 | 0% | 9% | 55% | 36% | 9% | −26 |
| Grade 6 | 7 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Grade 7 | 23 | 9% | 13% | 43% | 35% | 22% | −12 |
| Grade 8 | 18 | 33% | 6% | 28% | 33% | 39% | +7 |
| Grade 11 | 62 | 11% | 10% | 19% | 60% | 21% | −2 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 89 | 12% | 19% | 58% | 10% |
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 | 70 | 44.3% | +9 | +6 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 42 | 47.6% | +13 | +9 |
| White | 16 | 68.8% | +11 | +7 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surfside Academy ← | — | 30 | 4.5% | 36.4% | — | 1.4% |
| Buena Vista Elementary | 1.9 mi | 68 | 38.1% | 68.9% | −3.3 | 1.1% |
| North Terrace Elementary | 2.4 mi | 50 | 20.5% | 51.5% | −0.2 | 2.4% |
| Jefferson Elementary | 2.7 mi | 47 | 25.1% | 50.2% | −0.5 | 0.9% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 31 | 37 | #3610 | 12.0% | 35.8% | 42.8% | 1.0% | — |
| 2023 | 32 | 31 | #3968 | 10.3% | 29.5% | 24.1% | 0.9% | — |
| 2025 | 30 | 16 | #4799 | 4.5% | 36.4% | 23.0% | 1.4% | — |
- — Growth data isn't available — the state needs matched grades across years to compute it.
- — Scored here as an elementary school — other grade spans appear in the data appendix.
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | — | 29.4% | — |
| Male | — | 29.8% | — |
| Black/African American | — | 26.3% | — |
| Hispanic/Latino | — | 32.2% | — |
| Two or More Races | — | 11.1% | — |
| Students with Disabilities | — | 35.1% | — |
| English Learners | — | 37.0% | — |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | — | 31.6% | — |
| All Students | — | 29.9% | — |
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