Gerald R. Ford Elementary

Gerald R. Ford Elementary is a moderately sized elementary school in Indian Wells, California, overseen by Desert Sands Unified. The school enrolls 598 students in grades K through 5. That puts it 29% above the typical public school in California, which averages around 465 students.

Desert Sands Unified comprises 34 schools with combined enrollment of 25,613 students; Gerald R. Ford Elementary is among them.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Gerald R. Ford Elementary logs that Hispanic students make up the majority at 56%. The remainder breaks down as 30% White, 7% Asian, 5% multiracial.

On the income-and-resources front, The school currently runs with 25 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 23.9:1. The state averages around 22.3:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. Roughly 63% of students at Gerald R. Ford Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. Set against Riverside County (around 74%), the school's rate is somewhat below typical.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Gerald R. Ford Elementary ranks in the top 10% of California public schools. The BeatsExpectations model, a per-state regression of composite proficiency on FRL share, predicts schools with this student profile to land around 42.0%; Gerald R. Ford Elementary posts 59.5%, +17.5 points above that line.

Across the wider county, Riverside County reports that median household earnings sit near $93,074, about 26% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and roughly 8% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, Riverside County runs 543 public schools (combined enrollment of about 424,872 students), of which Gerald R. Ford Elementary is one.

Colonel Mitchell Paige Middle is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.6 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Gerald R. Ford Elementary comes 1st of 7 in the immediate cluster, above the nearby-schools average of 40.6%.

Geographically, the school is in a residential area.

Over the past 7-year window. Gerald R. Ford Elementary's enrollment has fell 21% since 2018, when it stood at 759 (now 598). The Hispanic share of enrollment climbed from 47% to 56% over that span.

On allk12, members of the Gerald R. Ford Elementary community share and discuss science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.