1
What's the biggest difference between C L Smith Elementary and what you expected?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
528
Elementary
DISTRICT 408 · STATE 465
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·SAN LUIS COASTAL UNIFIED·NCES 063480005882
C L Smith Elementary
1375 Balboa St., San Luis Obispo, CA 93405 · (805) 596-4094 · San Luis Obispo County
GRADES KG–06ELEMENTARY13-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL528 STUDENTS
A-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 82% of California public elementary schools
- A-Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- B+Beats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- B+Three-year trend Change in reading and math proficiency over the last three test years.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded California public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
22.5:1
24 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 22.8:1 · STATE 22.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
45%
240 students
DISTRICT 42% · STATE 65%
Community
6
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | 103 | 20% |
| Grade 1 | 78 | 15% |
| Grade 2 | 64 | 12% |
| Grade 3 | 70 | 13% |
| Grade 4 | 68 | 13% |
| Grade 5 | 73 | 14% |
| Grade 6 | 72 | 14% |
This year's kindergarten class (103) is 43% larger than its 6th grade class (72).
Student demographics
61%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 59% · STATE 62% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
School pathway
Students here typically continue to
C L Smith Elementary→Laguna Middle
Based on grade levels within San Luis Coastal Unified. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
CAASPP 2024-25 . % met or exceeded standardEnglish Language Arts
65.7%
CA avg 49.1% . +26.7pp since 2014
Math
52.2%
CA avg 37.7% . +17.2pp since 2014
What this means: On the CAASPP, California's statewide test, about 66 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 52 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all California schools, those numbers are about 49 and 38. Reading and writing scores are up about 27 points since 2014, while math scores are up about 17 points.
Performance levels, 2024-25
| Subject | Standard Exceeded | Standard Met | Standard Nearly Met | Standard Not Met |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English Language Arts | 41.0% | 24.6% | 15.7% | 18.7% |
| Math | 30.7% | 21.5% | 23.3% | 24.4% |
Share of tested students at each CAASPP level. Each student counts in one level, so a row adds to about 100%.
CAASPP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 65.7% | 52.2% |
| 2023-24 | 63.1% | 60.0% |
| 2022-23 | 55.5% | 50.8% |
| 2021-22 | 57.3% | 50.7% |
| 2020-21 | 47.2% | 36.7% |
| 2018-19 | 57.6% | 48.2% |
| 2017-18 | 44.6% | 39.5% |
| 2016-17 | 39.9% | 37.8% |
| 2015-16 | 46.0% | 41.0% |
| 2014-15 | 39.0% | 35.0% |
% met or exceeded standard, all students and all tested grades.
Source: CAASPP. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
60.2%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
52.9%
based on CA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+7.3pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 60% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 53% typical for California schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among California's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like C L Smith Elementary
C L Smith Elementary's state test result (60.2% proficient) is higher than 4 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| C L Smith Elementary this school | 528 | 45.5% | 60.2% |
| Cloverland Elementary Oakdale | 488 | 46.1% | 53.2% |
| Monte Vista Elementary Rohnert Park | 489 | 46.6% | 38.7% |
| Calavera Hills Elementary Carlsbad | 441 | 45.1% | 64.0% |
| Almondale Elementary Bakersfield | 631 | 45.0% | 42.9% |
| Rio Bravo Elementary Bakersfield | 589 | 48.2% | 48.8% |
Matched among California elementary schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where C L Smith Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In California | In San Luis Obispo County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 60.2% | #1,107 of 5,151 | #9 of 37 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 52.2% | #1,447 of 5,172 ▼ 428 | #12 of 37 ▼ 3 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 65.7% | #982 of 5,172 ▲ 94 | #9 of 37 ▼ 1 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +4.9pp | #1,701 of 5,116 | #12 of 37 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 528 | #2,118 of 5,915 | #6 of 45 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 22.5:1 | #2,569 of 5,352 | #18 of 37 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 61.3% | #1,688 of 5,354 | #6 of 37 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 45.5% | #4,109 of 5,625 | #27 of 40 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +43.9% | #59 of 1,139 | #1 of 17 |
Ranked against other public elementary schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
528
+157 (+42%) vs 2020
+20% since 1990-91, when it was 440
Student : Teacher
22.5:1
was 18.6:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 528 | 23.5 | 22.5:1 | 45% (240) |
| 2023-24 | 484 | 22 | 22.0:1 | 56% (271) |
| 2022-23 | 465 | 22 | 21.1:1 | 46% (215) |
| 2020-21 | 371 | 20 | 18.6:1 | 48% (178) |
| 2017-18 | 367 | 18 | 20.4:1 | 58% (212) |
| 2015-16 | 388 | 17 | 22.8:1 | 54% (211) |
| 2010-11 | 401 | N/A | N/A | 44% (178) |
| 2000-01 | 402 | 23 | 17.5:1 | 29% (116) |
| 1990-91 | 440 | 20 | 22.0:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for C L Smith Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students up 44% (367 to 528); teachers up 31% (18 to 23.5).
About C L Smith Elementary
C L Smith Elementary is a mid-sized elementary school in California, with an address in San Luis Obispo. Students in kindergarten through 6 make up the school's enrollment of 528 students.
San Luis Coastal Unified (16 schools, 7,653 students) runs C L Smith Elementary.
White students make up 46% of enrollment at C L Smith Elementary, the largest share of any group. Beyond that, enrollment is 41% Hispanic, 6% multiracial, and 4% Asian. In San Luis Obispo County overall, about 69% of residents are White. On a 0 to 100 scale, the school's diversity index is 61, compared with 70 nationally.
C L Smith Elementary lists 23.5 full-time-equivalent teachers; that is about 22.5 students per teacher. It is about the same as the 22.3:1 average for elementary schools in California. Free or reduced-price lunch covers 45% of the student body. The gap from the 54% average for public schools in San Luis Obispo County is 8 points.
On the allk12 Grade, C L Smith Elementary lands at A-, ahead of 82% of California public elementary schools.
The BeatsExpectations prediction for C L Smith Elementary is 52.9%, and its average proficiency rate across its state test results is 60.2%.
The school is in San Luis Obispo County, where the median household earns about $97,446 a year, about 40% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and roughly 6% of residents are in poverty. Across San Luis Obispo County, 83 public schools serve about 33,339 students.
Of the public schools around it, C L Smith Elementary is closest to Laguna Middle, about 0.5 miles away. Inside a five-mile radius, there are at least 8 other public schools. Ranked by average proficiency, C L Smith Elementary places 4th out of 7 schools in its immediate area.
The National Center for Education Statistics classifies the school's location as City: Small, meaning it is inside a principal city with a population under 100,000.
Reported enrollment: 371 (2020-21) and 528 (2024-25). These figures may describe different sets of grades. The number of students per teacher increased from 18.6 to 22.5 over 4 years.
This page is set up for the C L Smith Elementary community to discuss homework, tutoring, and testing dates. Members of the school community can share what they know.
San Luis Obispo County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
281,555
Census ACS
Median income
$97,446
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
40%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
6%
Below federal line
Schools in county
83
33,339 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in San Luis Coastal Unified
- San Luis Obispo HighHigh · 1,678 students
- Laguna MiddleMiddle · 780 students
- Morro Bay HighHigh · 751 students
- Los Ranchos ElementaryElementary · 521 students
- Los Osos MiddleMiddle · 494 students
- Pacheco ElementaryElementary · 488 students
Other schools in San Luis Obispo
- San Luis Obispo HighHigh · 1,678 students
- Laguna MiddleMiddle · 780 students
- Los Ranchos ElementaryElementary · 521 students
- Pacheco ElementaryElementary · 488 students
- Hawthorne ElementaryElementary · 437 students
- Sinsheimer ElementaryElementary · 401 students
Nearby schools
- Laguna Middle0.5 mi · 780
- Pacific Beach High0.6 mi · 62
- Hawthorne Elementary1.8 mi · 437
- Bishop's Peak Elementary2.4 mi · 358
- Pacheco Elementary2.5 mi · 488
- Sinsheimer Elementary2.6 mi · 401
Frequently asked questions
About C L Smith ElementaryWhat is the total enrollment at C L Smith Elementary?
C L Smith Elementary enrolls approximately 528 students in grades KG-06.
What age range does C L Smith Elementary serve?
C L Smith Elementary serves students from grade KG through grade 06.
How many teachers does C L Smith Elementary have?
C L Smith Elementary employs 24 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 22.5:1.
What is the student diversity at C L Smith Elementary?
Student demographics at C L Smith Elementary are roughly 46% White, 41% Hispanic, 2% Black, 4% Asian, 6% Two or more.
What district is C L Smith Elementary in?
C L Smith Elementary is part of San Luis Coastal Unified.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.