Walnut Elementary Education Center: Kids show up — absenteeism runs far below the state. But this year's 5th graders test below its 3rd graders.
Walnut Elementary Education Center 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 | 52 | 32% | 59% | -14.9 | 4.5% | 0.2% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Walnut Elementary Education Center 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 “59% proficient” and call it done. Walnut Elementary Education Center deserves a closer read. The school sits in Turlock, where two in five students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
Walnut Elementary Education Center's low-income kids hit 57.7% 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.
The seven-year arc
Slipped from the 82nd to the 70th percentile since 2019.
Proficiency here is back to its pre-pandemic level — 59% meet the standard, about where the school stood in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 61% | 65% | 62% | 57% | 68% |
| Grade 4 | 59% | 58% | 58% | 54% | 57% |
| Grade 5 | 78% | 70% | 66% | 67% | 61% |
| Grade 6 | 61% | 66% | 74% | 68% | 73% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 66% | 77% | 72% | 63% | 67% |
| Grade 4 | 47% | 51% | 56% | 57% | 60% |
| Grade 5 | 54% | 49% | 47% | 51% | 44% |
| Grade 6 | 53% | 52% | 61% | 56% | 65% |
The story this school is actually telling
chronic absenteeism — versus 17.9% statewide. Attendance is the quietest strong signal a school can post.
proficiency runs 67% in this year's grade 3 against 52% in its grade 5. 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 9.1pp across grades; the floor slips 6.9pp. 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.
Walnut Elementary Education Center's most underrated number
57.7% 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 6 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 Walnut Elementary Education Center in Turlock, 57.7% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 33.0% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Walnut Elementary Education Center outperforms its district average for low-income students by 24.6 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (48.1% Math proficient); White students (66.2% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 31.4 percentage points for disabilities students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 189 students tested.
6 of 15 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 falls by 4.0pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +2.9pp.
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.
$99 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 900 students, this school is well above the typical California elementary school (≈480).
On the state's science test (CAST), 54% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Walnut Elementary Education Center a good elementary school?
What are Walnut Elementary Education Center's CAASPP test scores?
How does Walnut Elementary Education Center rank in California?
Is Walnut Elementary Education Center getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Walnut Elementary Education Center?
How does Walnut Elementary Education Center compare to other schools in Turlock?
How does Walnut Elementary Education Center serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 35
Nearby Middle Schools
2 within ~3 mi · avg 45
Nearby High Schools
2 within ~3 mi · avg 40
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 | 124 | 42% | 26% | 21% | 11% | 68% | +24 |
| Grade 4 | 121 | 26% | 31% | 27% | 16% | 57% | +12 |
| Grade 5 | 125 | 33% | 28% | 21% | 18% | 61% | +13 |
| Grade 6 | 116 | 37% | 36% | 17% | 9% | 73% | +27 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 124 | 44% | 23% | 23% | 10% | 67% | +21 |
| Grade 4 | 122 | 20% | 39% | 27% | 13% | 60% | +18 |
| Grade 5 | 125 | 26% | 18% | 31% | 25% | 44% | +9 |
| Grade 6 | 116 | 41% | 23% | 23% | 12% | 65% | +30 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 125 | 19% | 35% | 41% | 5% |
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 | 189 | 57.7% | +25 | +19 |
| White | 225 | 66.2% | +13 | +4 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 142 | 62.0% | +27 | +23 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walnut Elementary Education Center ← | — | 52 | 31.8% | 59.4% | −14.9 | 0.2% |
| Sandra Tovar Medeiros Elementary | 0.6 mi | 44 | 18.8% | 39.6% | −2.2 | 0.7% |
| Osborn Two-Way Immersion Academy | 2.6 mi | 32 | 10.0% | 27.6% | −17.6 | 0.1% |
| Crowell Elementary | 1.9 mi | 29 | 7.8% | 23.2% | −3.8 | 0.7% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 61 | 82 | #998 | 32.6% | 60.7% | 2.0% | 0.4% | +2.9pp |
| 2022 | 51 | 78 | #1250 | 31.5% | 61.8% | 10.9% | 0.3% | -11.6pp |
| 2023 | 51 | 75 | #1436 | 29.4% | 60.1% | 7.9% | 0.2% | -10.1pp |
| 2024 | 50 | 68 | #1847 | 26.7% | 58.3% | 4.1% | 0.7% | -0.6pp |
| 2025 | 52 | 70 | #1736 | 31.8% | 59.4% | 4.5% | 0.2% | -14.9pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 2.0% | 3.7% | +1.7pp |
| Male | 1.7% | 4.3% | +2.6pp |
| Asian | 0.0% | 3.2% | +3.2pp |
| Black/African American | 0.0% | — | — |
| Hispanic/Latino | 2.6% | 6.6% | +4.0pp |
| Two or More Races | 0.0% | 6.7% | +6.7pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 6.0% | 10.4% | +4.4pp |
| English Learners | 2.1% | 2.9% | +0.8pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 4.5% | 7.1% | +2.6pp |
| All Students | 1.9% | 4.0% | +2.1pp |
| Filipino | — | 0.0% | — |
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