W. R. Nelson Elementary: No single number tells this school's story. Here's the honest picture.
W. R. Nelson posts 29% meeting the standard and 12.1% exceeding it, against 43% and 21.3% statewide. The gaps and the bright spots below are the real read.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 37 | 12% | 29% | -7.9 | 13.9% | 0.9% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
W. R. Nelson Elementary scores 37 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 34th 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 “29% proficient” and call it done. W. R. Nelson deserves a closer read. The school sits in Tustin, where four in five students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
The seven-year arc
Slipped from the 43rd to the 34th percentile since 2019.
This school hasn't fully recovered from the pandemic: 29% meet the standard today, versus 35% in 2019 — a gap worth asking about on a visit.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 37% | 30% | 26% | 24% | 29% |
| Grade 4 | 41% | 13% | 28% | 25% | 31% |
| Grade 5 | 44% | 38% | 33% | 32% | 29% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 26% | 28% | 24% | 19% | 36% |
| Grade 4 | 36% | 16% | 26% | 27% | 28% |
| Grade 5 | 25% | 21% | 18% | 24% | 20% |
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 5.1pp across grades; the proficiency floor barely moves. 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 the school is working on next. Strong numbers tell you where a school is, not where it's going.
- Ask what changes between grade 3 and grade 5 here, and who teaches the older kids.
- 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 W. R. Nelson Elementary in Tustin, 27.3% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 45.9% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. W. R. Nelson Elementary trails its district average for low-income students by 18.6 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (24.9% Math proficient); Hispanic students (26.6% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 22.4 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 187 students tested.
9 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 1.3pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +7.6pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
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
$295 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), 19% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is W. R. Nelson Elementary a good elementary school?
What are W. R. Nelson Elementary's CAASPP test scores?
How does W. R. Nelson Elementary rank in California?
Is W. R. Nelson Elementary getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at W. R. Nelson Elementary?
How does W. R. Nelson Elementary compare to other schools in Tustin?
How does W. R. Nelson Elementary serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 85
Nearby Middle Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 51
Nearby High Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 64
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 | 68 | 10% | 19% | 31% | 40% | 29% | −14 |
| Grade 4 | 64 | 14% | 17% | 23% | 45% | 31% | −14 |
| Grade 5 | 78 | 15% | 14% | 19% | 51% | 29% | −18 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 70 | 10% | 26% | 23% | 41% | 36% | −10 |
| Grade 4 | 65 | 11% | 17% | 29% | 43% | 28% | −14 |
| Grade 5 | 81 | 12% | 7% | 28% | 52% | 20% | −16 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 80 | 5% | 14% | 54% | 28% |
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 | 187 | 27.3% | −19 | −11 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 169 | 26.6% | −15 | −12 |
| English Learners | 56 | 7.1% | −6 | −3 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W. R. Nelson Elementary ← | — | 37 | 12.1% | 28.9% | −7.9 | 0.9% |
| Deerfield Elementary | 2.4 mi | 88 | 55.7% | 75.7% | +9.1 | 0.9% |
| Tustin Memorial Elementary | 1.8 mi | 85 | 60.7% | 88.3% | −0.1 | 0.7% |
| Red Hill Elementary | 2.5 mi | 81 | 44.8% | 76.9% | +13.9 | 1.0% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 39 | 43 | #3145 | 13.7% | 34.6% | 6.8% | 0.8% | +2.9pp |
| 2022 | 30 | 34 | #3815 | 5.7% | 24.5% | 31.5% | 0.0% | +0.5pp |
| 2023 | 37 | 44 | #3201 | 7.7% | 25.8% | 26.7% | 0.0% | +0.5pp |
| 2024 | 36 | 33 | #3854 | 9.4% | 25.1% | 12.5% | 0.5% | +6.4pp |
| 2025 | 37 | 34 | #3788 | 12.1% | 28.9% | 13.9% | 0.9% | -7.9pp |
- — Low-income students here trail the state average for their group by 11 points in ELA — worth asking how the school is closing that gap.
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 5.2% | 16.6% | +11.4pp |
| Male | 8.1% | 10.7% | +2.6pp |
| Asian | 2.9% | 3.2% | +0.3pp |
| White | 7.7% | — | — |
| Hispanic/Latino | 7.1% | 15.1% | +8.0pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 9.1% | 20.8% | +11.7pp |
| English Learners | 6.5% | 14.4% | +7.9pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 6.6% | 14.2% | +7.6pp |
| All Students | 6.7% | 13.6% | +6.9pp |
| Two or More Races | — | 11.1% | — |
| Homeless | — | 18.2% | — |
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