Best Elementary Schools in California

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Find the best California elementary schools with SchoolDigger.com! Focused on test scores for accurate rankings, our user-friendly site simplifies your search. Empower your decisions by exploring top-rated schools, only on SchoolDigger.com - the ultimate guide to K-12 schools!

Year after year, SchoolDigger is always the first to publish California test scores and rankings. Other sites use stale test score data that are several years old! Be in the know with the very latest performance metrics.

The list is updated annually upon the release of the CAST and Smarter Balanced Assessments test scores by the California Department of Education. The most recent update was on Thursday, October 10, 2024.

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School															Students/Teachers											Per Pupil Expenditures (2018)							Ranking (2024 vs 2023)
ID	Rank (of 5862)	School	Type	Grades	Address	City	Zip	County	District	Is Charter	Is Magnet	Is Virtual	Is Title I	Phone	# Students	Full-time Teachers	Student/ Teacher Ratio	Free/Disc Lunch Recipients	White	Black	Hispanic	Asian	American Indian	Pacific Islander	Two or More Races	Per Pupil Expenditures: Total	Personnel from Federal Funds	Non-Personnel from Federal Funds	Total from Federal Funds	Personnel from State and Local Funds	Non-Personnel from State and Local Funds	Total from State and Local Funds	Average Standard Score (2024)	Average Standard Score (2023)	Rank (2023)	Rank Change from 2023	SchoolDigger Rating (2024)
063231010017	761	Lake Forest Elementary	Public	K-5	2240 Sailsbury Dr.	El Dorado Hills	95762	El Dorado County	Rescue Union Elementary	No	(n/a)	No	(n/a)	(916) 933-0652	418	20	20.6	11.7%	310 (74.2%)	2 (0.5%)	71 (17.0%)	19 (4.5%)	0 (0.0%)	2 (0.5%)	14 (3.3%)	$9,140							88.8	90.2	695	66
061185007696	762	Leffingwell Elementary	Public	K-5	10625 South Santa Gertrudes	Whittier	90603	Los Angeles County	East Whittier City Elementary	No	(n/a)	No	(n/a)	(562) 907-6300	542	24	22.5	37.8%	71 (13.1%)	11 (2.0%)	379 (69.9%)	31 (5.7%)	1 (0.2%)	0 (0.0%)	49 (9.0%)								88.8	90.8	652	110
064015014003	763	Heritage Elementary	Public	K-5	15400 Lansdowne Rd.	Tustin	92782	Orange County	Tustin Unified	No	(n/a)	No	(n/a)	(714) 430-2066	528	20	26.4	28.4%	113 (21.4%)	8 (1.5%)	110 (20.8%)	216 (40.9%)	3 (0.6%)	3 (0.6%)	75 (14.2%)	$10,053							88.8	87.1	866	103
068450014305	764	Cadence Park	Public	K-8	750 Benchmark	Irvine	92618	Orange County	Irvine Unified	No	(n/a)	No	(n/a)	(949) 404-1300	964	36	26.8	19.9%	165 (17.1%)	23 (2.4%)	124 (12.9%)	538 (55.8%)	2 (0.2%)	7 (0.7%)	105 (10.9%)								88.8	87.8	829	65
064119006816	765	Casita Center for Science/Math/Technology	Public	K-5	260 Cedar Dr.	Vista	92083	San Diego County	Vista Unified	No	(n/a)	No	(n/a)	(760) 724-8442	707	26	27.1	37.5%	261 (36.9%)	9 (1.3%)	343 (48.5%)	39 (5.5%)	1 (0.1%)	1 (0.1%)	53 (7.5%)	$8,653							88.7	87.4	852	87
060162000024	766	Nixon (Patricia) Elementary	Public	K-6	19600 Jacob Ave.	Cerritos	90703	Los Angeles County	ABC Unified	No	(n/a)	No	(n/a)	(562) 229-7895	689	27	25.5	52.4%	65 (9.4%)	61 (8.9%)	268 (38.9%)	213 (30.9%)	0 (0.0%)	11 (1.6%)	70 (10.2%)	$5,546							88.7	90.4	682	84
061062001183	767	Cesar Chavez Elementary	Public	K-6	1221 Anderson Rd.	Davis	95616	Yolo County	Davis Joint Unified	No	(n/a)	No	(n/a)	(530) 757-5490	492	21	23.7	11.6%	204 (41.5%)	8 (1.6%)	175 (35.6%)	40 (8.1%)	1 (0.2%)	0 (0.0%)	63 (12.8%)								88.7	93.8	454	313
060462002832	768	Matthew Turner Elementary	Public	K-5	540 Rose Dr.	Benicia	94510	Solano County	Benicia Unified	No	(n/a)	No	(n/a)	(707) 747-8390	508	22	23	12.6%	210 (41.3%)	13 (2.6%)	105 (20.7%)	67 (13.2%)	0 (0.0%)	2 (0.4%)	111 (21.9%)	$5,596							88.7	86.9	875	107
061488001839	769	Enders Elementary	Public	K-6	12302 Springdale St.	Garden Grove	92845	Orange County	Garden Grove Unified	No	(n/a)	No	(n/a)	(714) 663-6205	397	16	24.8	50.1%	127 (32.0%)	4 (1.0%)	168 (42.3%)	68 (17.1%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	30 (7.6%)	$12,011							88.7	88.6	790	21
060744000745	770	Arroyo Vista Elementary	Public	K-5	23371 Arroyo Vista	Rancho Santa Margarita	92688	Orange County	Capistrano Unified	No	(n/a)	No	(n/a)	(949) 234-5951	518	22	23.5	23.6%	296 (57.1%)	2 (0.4%)	76 (14.7%)	55 (10.6%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	89 (17.2%)	$10,025							88.7	90.1	704	66

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Other SchoolDigger ranking lists for California

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New! SchoolDigger ranking lists for CA student subgroups:

Female Students Male Students Asian Students African American Students Hispanic Students White Students Multi-racial Students English Language Learner Students Special Education Students Low Socio Economic Status Students Migrant Students Homeless Students Military Connected Students

About our rankings:

Schooldigger calculates school rankings based on Smarter Balanced Assessments English Language Arts/Literacy, Smarter Balanced Assessments Mathematics, CAST Science test scores released by the California Department of Education.
These rankings were last updated on October 10, 2024, and are based on the most recent test scores available. We update rankings as we receive new test scores from the California Department of Education, usually on a yearly basis.
Our sources of data include the National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education and the California Department of Education.
For more information about our ranking process, please see our Ranking FAQ. Details about our methodology are here.

Educational resources:

Per-Pupil Spending: Understanding the Breakdown of Federal, State, and Local Funds

A high school boy doing homework on a laptop

Virtual Schools: The Future of Online Education

SchoolDigger data sources: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Census Bureau and the California Department of Education.