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How has Gerald R. Ford Elementary changed in the last five years, for better or worse?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
598
Elementary
DISTRICT 573 · STATE 465
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·DESERT SANDS UNIFIED·NCES 061111010274
Gerald R. Ford Elementary
44-210 Warner Trail, Indian Wells, CA 92210 · (760) 772-4120 · Riverside County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL598 STUDENTS
A+
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 95% 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.
- ABeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- A-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
23.9:1
25 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 23.4:1 · STATE 22.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
63%
376 students
DISTRICT 79% · 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 | 122 | 20% |
| Grade 1 | 87 | 15% |
| Grade 2 | 92 | 15% |
| Grade 3 | 97 | 16% |
| Grade 4 | 88 | 15% |
| Grade 5 | 112 | 19% |
This year's kindergarten class (122) is 9% larger than its 5th grade class (112).
Student demographics
59%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 39% · 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
Test scores
CAASPP 2024-25 . % met or exceeded standardEnglish Language Arts
64.2%
CA avg 49.1% . +2.2pp since 2014
Math
60.0%
CA avg 37.7% . +3.0pp since 2014
What this means: On the CAASPP, California's statewide test, about 64 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 60 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 2 points since 2014, while math scores are up about 3 points.
Performance levels, 2024-25
| Subject | Standard Exceeded | Standard Met | Standard Nearly Met | Standard Not Met |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English Language Arts | 39.6% | 24.6% | 17.9% | 17.9% |
| Math | 27.0% | 33.0% | 22.8% | 17.2% |
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 | 64.2% | 60.0% |
| 2023-24 | 63.6% | 56.5% |
| 2022-23 | 56.2% | 52.8% |
| 2021-22 | 59.6% | 49.8% |
| 2018-19 | 69.8% | 62.6% |
| 2017-18 | 67.2% | 59.7% |
| 2016-17 | 60.7% | 55.5% |
| 2015-16 | 60.0% | 54.0% |
| 2014-15 | 62.0% | 57.0% |
% 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
OUTPERFORMING
Top 10% of CA schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
60.9%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
42.7%
based on CA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+18.2pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 61% of students here test proficient in math and reading, well above the roughly 43% typical for California schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations ranks schools against others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school can post high scores and still fall short of its prediction, or post lower scores and still beat it. This school clears its prediction by about 18 points, placing it in California's top 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 Gerald R. Ford Elementary
Gerald R. Ford Elementary's state test result (60.9% proficient) is higher than 5 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gerald R. Ford Elementary this school | 598 | 62.9% | 60.9% |
| Woodcrest Elementary Riverside | 660 | 63.0% | 38.0% |
| Northlake Hills Elementary Castaic | 556 | 59.2% | 53.8% |
| John Fremont Elementary Modesto | 625 | 66.1% | 35.9% |
| Pine Grove Elementary Santa Maria | 569 | 58.7% | 51.4% |
| Patterson Road Elementary Santa Maria | 662 | 60.9% | 40.7% |
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 Gerald R. Ford Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In California | In Riverside County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 60.9% | #1,073 of 5,151 | #19 of 283 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 60.0% | #1,063 of 5,172 ▲ 96 | #17 of 283 no change |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 64.2% | #1,074 of 5,172 ▼ 20 | #26 of 283 ▼ 7 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +7.4pp | #1,025 of 5,116 | #52 of 280 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 598 | #1,416 of 5,915 | #174 of 296 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 23.9:1 | #3,683 of 5,352 | #184 of 292 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 59.4% | #1,893 of 5,354 | #83 of 292 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 62.9% | #3,334 of 5,625 | #233 of 294 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -21.2% | #1,287 of 3,837 | #54 of 207 |
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
598
-62 (-9%) vs 2020
-29% since 2000-01, when it was 841
Student : Teacher
23.9:1
was 22.8:1
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 | 598 | 25 | 23.9:1 | 63% (376) |
| 2023-24 | 615 | 25.1 | 24.5:1 | 64% (391) |
| 2022-23 | 603 | 27.2 | 22.2:1 | 59% (354) |
| 2020-21 | 660 | 29 | 22.8:1 | 51% (337) |
| 2017-18 | 759 | 32 | 23.7:1 | 43% (323) |
| 2015-16 | 804 | 31 | 25.9:1 | 40% (325) |
| 2010-11 | 790 | N/A | N/A | 34% (271) |
| 2000-01 | 841 | 40 | 21.0:1 | 21% (173) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Gerald R. Ford Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 21% (759 to 598); teachers down 22% (32 to 25).
About Gerald R. Ford Elementary
Gerald R. Ford Elementary is a medium-sized elementary school located in Indian Wells, California. Classes run from kindergarten through 5, and the school has 598 students. The average for elementary schools in California is about 465 students, so this school is 29% above average.
A total of 34 schools make up Desert Sands Unified, with 25,613 students enrolled.
Roughly 56% of students at Gerald R. Ford Elementary are Hispanic. Enrollment also includes 30% White, 7% Asian, and 5% multiracial. Gerald R. Ford Elementary's diversity index is 59%, against a US figure of 70%.
Its teaching staff equals 25 full-time positions, a ratio of 23.9:1. That is higher than the 22.3:1 average for elementary schools in California. Free and reduced-price lunch eligibility, a common measure of family income, is 63%. The average for public schools in Riverside County is 74%.
allk12 grades Gerald R. Ford Elementary an A+. The grade compares the school only with California public elementary schools, because each state gives its own test.
Gerald R. Ford Elementary beats its predicted average proficiency rate on state tests by 18.2 points (60.9% versus 42.7%), a top-10% result in California on BeatsExpectations.
Census Bureau estimates for Riverside County show that the median household income is $93,074, roughly 26% of adults have a four-year degree or more, and the share of residents below the poverty line is 8%. There are 543 public schools in Riverside County, enrolling about 424,872 students in all.
Colonel Mitchell Paige Middle is the closest public school, about 0.6 miles away in a straight line. Other public schools within five miles number at least 8. The nearest schools with test data average 41.1%, lower than Gerald R. Ford Elementary's 60.9%.
Gerald R. Ford Elementary has an NCES locale of Suburb: Large.
Enrollment at Gerald R. Ford Elementary declined 9% between 2020-21 and 2024-25, from 660 to 598 students. The ratio was 22.8:1 in 2020-21 and 23.9:1 in 2024-25.
Topics for discussion here include school events, clubs, and volunteer needs. Alumni can share how the school prepared them.
Riverside County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
2,478,600
Census ACS
Median income
$93,074
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
26%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
8%
Below federal line
Schools in county
543
424,872 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Desert Sands Unified
- La Quinta HighHigh · 2,425 students
- Palm Desert HighHigh · 2,079 students
- Indio HighHigh · 1,962 students
- Shadow Hills HighHigh · 1,650 students
- Palm Desert Charter MiddleMiddle · 1,298 students
- John Glenn Middle School of International StudiesMiddle · 1,099 students
Nearby schools
- Colonel Mitchell Paige Middle0.6 mi · 439
- Summit High (Continuation)0.8 mi · 195
- Horizon0.8 mi · 286
- James Monroe Elementary1.3 mi · 562
- La Quinta High2.1 mi · 2,425
- Amelia Earhart Elementary School of International Studies2.1 mi · 748
Frequently asked questions
About Gerald R. Ford ElementaryHow large is Gerald R. Ford Elementary?
Gerald R. Ford Elementary enrolls approximately 598 students in grades KG-05.
Is Gerald R. Ford Elementary an elementary, middle, or high school?
Gerald R. Ford Elementary is an elementary school covering grades KG-05.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Gerald R. Ford Elementary?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Gerald R. Ford Elementary is approximately 23.9:1 (25 FTE teachers).
What is the student diversity at Gerald R. Ford Elementary?
Student demographics at Gerald R. Ford Elementary are roughly 30% White, 56% Hispanic, 1% Black, 7% Asian, 5% Two or more.
Is Gerald R. Ford Elementary public or private?
Gerald R. Ford Elementary is a public K-12 school, overseen by Desert Sands Unified.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.