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Public elementary school

Surfside Academy

Oceanside, CA · Grades K-12 · 234 students · Oceanside Unified

The scores are below where anyone wants them. Here's what they don't tell you.

64% of tested students are Proficient or Advanced in English and 9% in math. Explore the evidence alongside the opportunities your child would use.

SchoolScope archetype

Building Momentum

What this means for your family

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.

How archetypes are assigned →

Math

9%

Grades 3 & 5 · Proficient or Advanced

English

64%

Grades 3 & 5 · Proficient or Advanced

Students

234

Total enrollment

Chronic absence

23%

Students absent 10% or more of school days

What are you trying to decide?

The overall score is a starting point.

Look at subject results, trends and student groups, then consider the opportunities your child would use.

View school performance →

Academic performance

What do the results tell us?

2025 results · Grades 3 & 5 · weighted by students tested within each subject.

Proficient or Advanced combines Levels 3 and 4, formerly Standard Met and Standard Exceeded. California changed the names for 2025–26; the cut scores did not. About the labels →

Share at Proficient or Advanced

0%25%50%75%100%2022: 31%2023: 21%2025: 9%2022: 42%2023: 38%2025: 64%20222023202420250%25%50%75%100%2022: 31%2023: 21%2025: 9%2022: 42%2023: 38%2025: 64%2022202320242025
● Math┄ English

Gaps in the lines mark years without annual results.

Exact annual results
YearMathEnglish
202231%42%
202321%38%
2024——
20259%64%

Each year describes that year’s tested students. Changes between years do not follow the same children over time. Cohort-growth evidence, when available, is labeled separately below.

Annual results and the full academic record
Is it getting better · CAASPP 2022 to 2025

Slipped from the 46th to the 25th percentile since 2022.

Most rating sites would stop at “36% proficient” and call it done. Surfside Academy deserves a closer read. Two-thirds of its students qualify for free or reduced lunch (California: 64%) — 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.

137 tested · 1 of 3 grades published · no cohort tracked

Surfside Academy scores 26 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 25th percentile of 5,721 California elementary schools (CDE CAASPP 2025).

Percentile among 5,721 elementary schools statewide
Year detailsYear2022 · 46th percentile · Scope Score 30 of 1002023 · 41st percentile · Scope Score 29 of 1002025 · 25th percentile · Scope Score 26 of 100
ELAGreen(Increased Significantly)MathYellow(Increased Significantly)
ShowHide the by-grade tables, year by year
ELA — % met or exceeded, by grade
Grade2022202320242025
Grade 5—38%—64%
Grade 645%69%21%—
Grade 762%29%50%35%
Grade 867%53%—67%
Grade 1135%49%30%53%
Math — % met or exceeded, by grade
Grade2022202320242025
Grade 5—21%—9%
Grade 624%54%13%—
Grade 743%18%33%22%
Grade 840%18%—39%
Grade 119%9%7%21%
Where students land · CAASPP 2024–25

One in three of students here meet the standard. 5% clear it by a lot.

ELA50% met or exceeded
Exceeded 18%Met 31%Nearly Met 22%Not Met 28%
Math23% met or exceeded
Exceeded 13%Met 10%Nearly Met 28%Not Met 49%
Exceeded Met Nearly Met Not Met
California elementary schools · average21% exceeded · 43% met or exceeded
This school against the California average
2022–2025 trend · CDE CAASPP
Scope% Exceeded% Met+GrowthAbsenceSuspension
This school265%36%—23.0%1.4%
CA average · Elementary School3921%43%—17.9%1.6%
This schoolCA avg
Scope2639
% Exceeded5%21%
% Met+36%43%
Growth——
Absence23.0%17.9%
Suspension1.4%1.6%
California’s growth results and student groups
State growth model · CDE growth model 2024–25

California's own growth model splits here — the 88th percentile in reading against the 16th in math, among elementary schools.

Context — never part of the Scope Score

California runs its own growth model — it follows individual children in grades 4 through 8 and compares each one against a prediction from their own prior scores. On that measure this school sits about at the middle of California elementary schools in reading, and the 16th in math. We show it; we don't score it.

— pts vs expected is scale-score points above or below what California's model predicted for these same children from their own prior-year scores. It is not a percentage and not a percent of anything. A typical California elementary school lands at +2 in reading, and the middle half of them fall between −5 and +9 — the spread is wide, so read the rank, not the sign. CDE blends two consecutive years into each published figure, so adjacent years share input data and no year-over-year trend can honestly be drawn from them. It covers grades 4-8 only, and it is not part of the Scope Score — we assessed it and left it out: it tracks school demographics roughly three times as strongly as our own growth measure does, and one published year is not enough to test how stable it is.

California's growth model, ranked against the schools it scores
State model · readingmatched students, grades 4-8California growth model, reading: +14 scale-score points versus the state's expectation, 88th percentile of 7,519 reported schools.88th pctile · +14 pts
State model · mathmatched students, grades 4-8California growth model, math: −12 scale-score points versus the state's expectation, 16th percentile of 7,518 reported schools.16th pctile · −12 pts
this school| the tick is the middle of the California field

Students & opportunity

Who shares in the school’s results?

Who it works for · CAASPP 2024–25

Low-income students here meet the ELA standard ahead of the same group statewide.

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.

Met or exceeded · reading and math combined
All students at this school: 38% met or exceeded
All StudentsAll Students: this school 38%, district —, state 43%38%
Socioeconomically DisadvantagedSocioeconomically Disadvantaged: this school 32%, district 30%, state 32%32% · −6 vs school
FemaleFemale: this school 37%, district 39%, state 44%37% · −0 vs school
MaleMale: this school 37%, district 35%, state 42%37% · −1 vs school
Hispanic/LatinoHispanic/Latino: this school 31%, district 29%, state 32%31% · −7 vs school
WhiteWhite: this school 56%, district 53%, state 56%56% · +19 vs school

10 of 16 student groups here are too small to report — a privacy protection, not a gap.

this school district, same group California, same group
ShowHide Student-group results by grade
Student-group results by grade

Results compare different grade groups in the same year, relative to the lowest tested grade. They do not track the same children over time. Groups with fewer than 10 tested students per grade are not shown.

ShowHide California's growth model by student group

The daily experience

What is it like to be a student here?

Students per teacher

Student–teacher ratio is a schoolwide staffing measure, not an average class size.

The people teaching · CDE staffing 2024–25

About 39 students for every teacher here.

Context — never part of the Scope Score

Students per teacher39 · district 23
Teaching staff8 teachers
Avg. experience19.0 years
Fully credentialed90%
PrincipalEric Frandsen
ShowHide what the district pays
Teacher salary schedule$53,318 – $118,979
Principal salary$153,348 – $183,517
Superintendent salary$300,606

Pay is set by the district, not the school.

Attendance & discipline · 2024–25

Kids here miss more school, and get suspended less, than the state average.

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.

23.0% of students miss a month or more of school, versus 17.9% statewide. High absence often tracks community stress — a school visit will tell you more than this number.

Chronic absenteeismChronic absenteeism: this school 23.0%, district 23.1%, state 17.9%23.0% · +5.2pp vs state
Suspension rateSuspension rate: this school 1.4%, district —, state 1.6%1.4% · −0.3pp vs state
This schoolDistrictCalifornia
ShowHide attendance by student group and by grade
Chronic absenteeism by grade band
Grades 4–620.0%
Grades 7–834.0%
Grades 9–1231.3%

Resources & neighborhood

What sits behind the school experience?

Explore school spending and the district budget
What gets spent · FY 2024–25

It spends $19,366 per student, more than the California average.

Context — never part of the Scope Score

$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.

Per-pupil spendingPer-pupil spending: $19,366, CA average $14,491$19,366 · spent at this school
Federal share$405 per student
District current expense · FY 2024–25$20,901 per student
This schoolDistrictCalifornia
Where the district's dollars go · FY 2024–25 · CDE SACS
Instruction 60%Instruction support 11%Student services 10%Administration 7%Buildings & maintenance 11%

District-level, from the district's own SACS general-ledger filing — school-by-school breakdowns aren't published by the state.

ShowHide the district's spending year by year
district detail, 2016–2020 — the newest published
2020$14,594 per pupil
2019$13,384 per pupil
2018$13,154 per pupil
2017$11,020 per pupil
2016$10,838 per pupil

Source: NCES F-33 · Full district breakdown →

The neighborhood · ACS 2024

Two-thirds of students here qualify for free or reduced lunch, versus three in five statewide.

Context — never part of the Scope Score

Worth knowing

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 and once in high school, and it never enters the Scope Score.

Hispanic or Latino55.1% · district 57.1% · CA 56.1%
White28.2% · district 24.8% · CA 19.9%
Asian1.7% · district 1.7% · CA 10.2%
Black5.6% · district 3.7% · CA 4.8%
Other9.4% · district 12.7% · CA 9.0%
GenderFemale 46.6% · Male 52.6% · Non-binary 0.8%
Free or reduced lunch73.1% · CA 64%
Median income$82K · CA $85K
Median home value$909K · CA $659K
Bachelor's degree+39% · CA 35%
ZIP population38,417
Median age39 years

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates (2024) · ZIP-level

Culture & philosophy

What is the school’s approach?

School-stated approach · questions for your visit

Look beyond the brochure

A source-reviewed culture summary is not available for this profile yet. Ask how teaching, student support and family communication work day to day.

Read the school’s own website ↗

Family voices

What would you want another family to know about the daily experience here?

Ask a current family: “When your child needs help, how does the school respond?”

Educator voices

What should families understand about teaching, support and the school community?

Ask an educator: “How do you adapt a typical day for children with different needs?”

Bring these questions on a visit →

Compare nearby schools

What are the alternatives?

Compare schools serving the same grade stage. Private schools have no comparable state-test score.

2025 · elementary schools · combined reading and math measures. Percentiles compare schools within their enrollment group.

Private options →
SchoolTypePerformance bandAdvancedProficient or AdvancedDistanceSelect
Surfside AcademyPublicNeeds Support5%36%School being viewed
Buena Vista ElementaryPublicStrong38%69%1.9 mi
North Terrace ElementaryPublicSolid20%52%2.4 mi
Jefferson ElementaryPublicSolid25%50%2.7 mi
Open the comparison tool →
More nearby public and private options
Your other options

Your other options

Nearby public schools across grade levels, plus private options within 10 miles.

All schools in Oceanside →

Private schools do not receive a Scope Score or statewide ranking on SchoolScope.

15 private schools within 10 miles
Not scored
What should I check before applying?
District public
Confirm the attendance boundary and any permit options.
Charter
Check applications, priorities and deadlines with each school.
Private
Confirm admission requirements, tuition and financial aid.

Moving & enrollment

Which schools could serve my child?

Check your address with the district

School location and nearby schools do not establish attendance eligibility. Confirm boundaries and permit requirements with Oceanside Unified.

District information →School website →

Schools across the K–12 journey

Source: proximity. Schools are grouped by grade stage. Nearby schools are not confirmed feeder links or address assignments. Verify the current path and eligibility with the district.

Plan your next step

What should I do next?

Worth a school visit

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.
Questions

Frequently asked questions

Is Surfside Academy a good elementary school?
Surfside Academy has a Scope Score of 26 out of 100, placing it in the 25th percentile of California elementary schools and ranked #4,314 statewide. 4.5% of students exceeded the state standard on the 2025 CAASPP assessment, which is 16.8 percentage points below the California average of 21.4%. The Scope Score weights 6 dimensions for elementary schools: exceeded standard (42%), met or exceeded (proficient) (23%), grade 3-to-5 growth (20%), chronic absenteeism (5%), suspension rate (5%), and ELPAC English Learner proficiency (5%). Data source: California Department of Education CAASPP 2025, analyzed by SchoolScope.
What are Surfside Academy's CAASPP test scores?
On the 2025 CAASPP Smarter Balanced Assessment, 36.4% of students at Surfside Academy met or exceeded the state standard in ELA and Math combined, and 4.5% exceeded it. The gap between those numbers matters: 31.8% of students are at the proficiency floor, while 4.5% went beyond it. Most rating sites report only the combined "proficient" number. SchoolScope surfaces the exceeded-vs-met split because it shows how many students go beyond the standard rather than only meeting it. 22 student-subject combinations were assessed.
How does Surfside Academy rank in California?
Surfside Academy ranks #4,314 among California elementary schools by Scope Score, placing it in the 25th percentile. This ranking is based on a weighted composite of 2025 CAASPP test performance (exceeded and met rates), grade-level growth (Grade 3 to grade 5 growth), chronic absenteeism, and suspension rate. Unlike single-number ratings, the Scope Score shows what drives the ranking so parents can decide what matters most to their family. See full methodology.
What is the attendance and school culture like at Surfside Academy?
23.0% of students at Surfside Academy are chronically absent (missing 10% or more of school days), compared to the California average of 17.9%. The suspension rate is 1.4%, indicating a low-discipline-incident environment. SchoolScope includes these culture metrics in the Scope Score because they reflect day-to-day school experience in ways test scores alone cannot.
How does Surfside Academy compare to other schools in Oceanside?
Surfside Academy scores 26/100 (25th percentile) among California elementary schools. To compare with nearby schools, SchoolScope shows the same metrics side by side: exceeded rate, proficiency, growth trajectory, and school culture indicators. The school serves 234 students. Use the schools in Oceanside page or the map view to compare all elementary schools nearby.
How does Surfside Academy serve low-income and underrepresented students?
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. SchoolScope shows disaggregated test scores by demographic subgroup so you can see how a school performs for your child's specific group — not just the school-wide average. Subgroup data is context, not part of the Scope Score: we don't penalize schools for who they serve. See our equity approach.

Use the published evidence to prepare questions, then verify fit and access with the school.

Behind the evidence

Inspect the full record

Public sources, visible methods and the underlying school record. Source years and limitations stay attached to the evidence.

How the Scope Score is calculated

On a narrow screen, scroll the table sideways to see the state comparison and weights.

What the score weighs · CAASPP 2024–25

The 5 things our score weighs

What the score weighs
What we weighHereStateWeight
Exceeded standard4.5%21.4%42%
Met or exceeded36.4%42.7%23%
Chronic absenteeism23.0%17.9%5%
Suspension rate1.4%1.6%5%
EL proficiency (ELPAC)0.0%18.0%5%

Source CAASPP 2025 · California Department of Education. Measures test performance, attendance, and climate — not arts, community, or your kid. How the score is built

A closer look at the evidence

Surfside Academy: reading the evidence

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.

Subject proficiency describes tested students, while graduation describes a graduating cohort. These figures are not successive stages followed by the same students.

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.

Explore the underlying data →
Every number: score factors, grades, student groups and downloads
Every number · For the data nerds

Every number on this page

Score factors, grade-level breakdowns, subgroup proficiency, and nearest schools.

Surfside Academy is ranked #4,314 statewide · #14 of 16 in Oceanside Unified.

01Score factorsWeighted composite · 2024–25
Score factors
FactorSchoolStateWeight
Exceeded standard4.5%21.4%42%
Met or exceeded36.4%42.7%23%
Chronic absenteeism23.0%17.9%5%
Suspension rate1.4%1.6%5%
EL proficiency (ELPAC)0.0%18.0%5%
Exceeded standard
↓ vs CA 21.4% · index 37 · 50 = CA elementary-school midpoint
Met or exceeded
↓ vs CA 42.7% · index 46 · 50 = CA elementary-school midpoint
Chronic absenteeism
↓ vs CA 17.9% · index 42 · 50 = CA elementary-school midpoint · ▼ 2.0pp lower vs 2023
Suspension rate
↑ vs CA 1.6% · index 52 · 50 = CA elementary-school midpoint · ▲ 0.1pp higher vs 2023
EL proficiency (ELPAC)
↓ vs CA 18.0% · index 39 · 50 = CA elementary-school midpoint
02By grade & subgroupCAASPP 2024–25 · % of tested students
ShowHide table 02 — By grade & subgroup
ELATestedEXCMETNEARNOTMET++/CA
Grade 38——————
Grade 48——————
Grade 5119%55%18%18%64%+16
Grade 67——————
Grade 7234%30%35%30%35%−13
Grade 81822%44%11%22%67%+20
Grade 116223%31%18%29%53%+5
MathTestedEXCMETNEARNOTMET++/CA
Grade 38——————
Grade 48——————
Grade 5110%9%55%36%9%−26
Grade 67——————
Grade 7239%13%43%35%22%−12
Grade 81833%6%28%33%39%+7
Grade 116211%10%19%60%21%−3

We show the grade rows CDE publishes for this school. A missing grade or dash can mean the school does not serve that grade, that we hold no valid result for it, or that the tested group was too small to report. It does not mean zero.

Science (CAST)TestedEXCMETNEARNOT
Schoolwide8912%19%58%10%

CAST is tested in grades 5 and 8, then once in grade 10, 11, or 12. This row is the school's all-student aggregate. Not part of the Scope Score.

Subgroup · ELATestedMET+vs districtvs CA
Socioeconomically Disadvantaged7044.3%+9+6
Hispanic/Latino4247.6%+13+9
White1668.8%+11+7
03Nearest elementary schoolssorted by Scope Score · Grade gap = grade 3 vs grade 5, this year, different students; Cohort growth = one school's returning cohort tracked across grades (mostly, not exactly, the same kids), in scale-score points — that's the measurement the Scope Score weights
SchoolDistScopeEXCMET+Grade gapCohort growthSusp
Surfside Academy ←—264.5%36.4%——1.4%
Buena Vista Elementary1.9 mi6238.1%68.9%−3.3pp—1.1%
North Terrace Elementary2.4 mi4420.5%51.5%−0.2pp—2.4%
Jefferson Elementary2.7 mi4125.1%50.2%−0.5pp—0.9%
California average—3921.4%42.7%−2.9pp—1.6%
04More measurescontext · not all part of the Scope Score
ShowHide table 04 — More measures
YearScopePctileRankExcMet+AbsentSuspGrade gap
20223046#306112.0%35.8%39.7%1.1%—
20232941#337610.3%29.5%25.0%1.2%—
20252625#43144.5%36.4%23.0%1.4%—
Grade gap = this year's grade 3 vs grade 5 result, two different sets of students, not a trend for any one child — it is not the measurement the Scope Score's growth dimension uses. See §01 above and /methodology#verdicts for the school's actual scored (cohort) growth.
What we can't show
  • — 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.
05Climate by student groupchronic absenteeism · 2019 vs 2025 — the two years CDE publishes at subgroup level
ShowHide table 05 — Climate by student group
Group20192025Δ
Female—29.4%—
Male—29.8%—
Black/African American—26.3%—
Hispanic/Latino—32.2%—
Two or More Races—11.1%—
White—29.6%—
Students with Disabilities—35.1%—
English Learners—37.0%—
Socioeconomically Disadvantaged—31.6%—
All Students—29.9%—
06California growth model, by student group2025 · scale-score points vs the state's prediction · shown, never scored
ShowHide table 06 — California growth model, by student group
GroupReadingnCDE bandMathnCDE band
All Students+1430Accelerated−1230Moderate
English Only+927not categorised−1427not categorised
Socioeconomically Disadvantaged019Average−1619Moderate
Hispanic or Latino+2314Exceptional−1814Moderate
White+313Average−1613Moderate

Whole scale-score points above or below what CDE's model predicted for these same children from their own prior-year scores — not a percentage, not a percentile. Statewide a typical school lands near +1 with a spread of about 13 points either side, so read a figure against its group's own typical value, not against zero. Muted rows have fewer than 30 students with a growth score — published by CDE, held back from the narrative sections above because at that size the figure swings about 17 points on its own. “Not categorised” is CDE assigning no band — English Only, Recently Reclassified, and English Learners Only receive a value and no band, for every school in the state. It is not a missing number. Most figures blend two consecutive years, so adjacent published years share input data and no trend line can honestly be drawn across them. A group absent from this table had fewer than 11 students with a growth score and was never published. Grades 4-8 only. None of this enters the Scope Score — it is more strongly correlated with school demographics than our own growth measure, and one published year is not enough to test its reliability.

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EXC = exceeded standard · MET+ = met or exceeded ("proficient") · Source: CA Dept. of Education · CAASPP 2024–25 · n=5,721 elementary schools · Vintages: climate subgroups 2019+2025 · district finance per its label · ACS 2022 · Data updated 2026-09-18

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

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