Zela Davis: No single number tells this school's story. Here's the honest picture.
Zela Davis posts 36% meeting the standard and 16.8% 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 | 34 | 17% | 36% | -10.2 | 30.3% | 1.5% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Zela Davis scores 34 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 28th 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. Zela Davis deserves a closer read. The school sits in Hawthorne, 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 28th percentile since 2019.
Proficiency here is back to its pre-pandemic level — 36% meet the standard, about where the school stood in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 39% | 36% | 33% | 28% | 44% |
| Grade 4 | 39% | 24% | 34% | 32% | 38% |
| Grade 5 | 41% | 37% | 31% | 38% | 29% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 39% | 40% | 49% | 33% | 40% |
| Grade 4 | 34% | 18% | 35% | 34% | 31% |
| Grade 5 | 28% | 24% | 25% | 31% | 35% |
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 falls 13.9pp across grades; the floor slips 14.6pp. The state average rises 4.5pp over the same span. 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 how the school follows up when a student starts missing days — chronic absence often starts outside the classroom, not inside it.
- 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 Zela Davis in Hawthorne, 37.2% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 41.0% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Zela Davis trails its district average for low-income students by 3.8 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (35.4% Math proficient); Hispanic students (34.0% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 30.8 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 374 students tested.
7 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 15.0pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: -3.2pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
TK/K students miss school at roughly twice the rate of Grades 4–6 students (45.3% vs 25.8%). Chronic absence here concentrates in the earliest grades — worth asking how the school works with new families on attendance.
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
$1,529 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 843 students, this school is well above 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), 19% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Zela Davis a good elementary school?
What are Zela Davis's CAASPP test scores?
How does Zela Davis rank in California?
Is Zela Davis getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Zela Davis?
How does Zela Davis compare to other schools in Hawthorne?
How does Zela Davis serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 67
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 | 137 | 26% | 18% | 23% | 33% | 44% | +0 |
| Grade 4 | 131 | 15% | 24% | 15% | 47% | 38% | −7 |
| Grade 5 | 137 | 12% | 18% | 24% | 47% | 29% | −19 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 139 | 23% | 17% | 25% | 35% | 40% | −5 |
| Grade 4 | 135 | 12% | 19% | 33% | 36% | 31% | −10 |
| Grade 5 | 139 | 14% | 20% | 24% | 42% | 35% | −1 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 139 | 5% | 14% | 53% | 27% |
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 | 374 | 37.2% | −4 | −1 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 259 | 34.0% | −6 | −5 |
| Black/African American | 125 | 40.0% | −3 | +7 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zela Davis ← | — | 34 | 16.8% | 36.2% | −10.2 | 1.5% |
| Madison Elementary | 3 mi | 71 | 45.4% | 65.9% | +3.7 | 0.3% |
| Lincoln Elementary | 2.9 mi | 66 | 51.1% | 75.8% | −11.7 | 0.3% |
| One Hundred Fifty-Sixth Street Elementary | 1.8 mi | 65 | 41.3% | 66.4% | −2.0 | 0.1% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 39 | 43 | #3135 | 16.1% | 36.6% | 12.3% | 0.1% | -4.9pp |
| 2022 | 30 | 35 | #3745 | 11.1% | 29.9% | 42.3% | 1.3% | -7.8pp |
| 2023 | 32 | 31 | #3929 | 13.7% | 34.4% | 35.9% | 0.7% | -12.9pp |
| 2024 | 39 | 44 | #3231 | 14.4% | 32.7% | 28.7% | 1.8% | +3.8pp |
| 2025 | 34 | 28 | #4164 | 16.8% | 36.2% | 30.3% | 1.5% | -10.2pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 11.0% | 31.4% | +20.4pp |
| Male | 13.5% | 30.3% | +16.8pp |
| Asian | 15.0% | 10.5% | -4.5pp |
| Black/African American | 17.8% | 34.1% | +16.3pp |
| White | 0.0% | — | — |
| Hispanic/Latino | 9.6% | 29.5% | +19.9pp |
| Two or More Races | 13.3% | 22.2% | +8.9pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 22.0% | 41.8% | +19.8pp |
| English Learners | 9.0% | 25.3% | +16.3pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 12.2% | 31.3% | +19.1pp |
| All Students | 12.3% | 30.8% | +18.5pp |
| Foster Youth | — | 50.0% | — |
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