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Alumni: what's one memory from Highlands Elementary that still sticks with you?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
480
Elementary
DISTRICT 577 · STATE 465
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·PITTSBURG UNIFIED·NCES 063060004748
Highlands Elementary
4141 Harbor St., Pittsburg, CA 94565 · (925) 473-2440 · Contra Costa County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL480 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
22.9:1
21 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 21.8:1 · STATE 22.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
76%
365 students
DISTRICT 80% · 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 | 110 | 23% |
| Grade 1 | 72 | 15% |
| Grade 2 | 65 | 14% |
| Grade 3 | 92 | 19% |
| Grade 4 | 74 | 15% |
| Grade 5 | 67 | 14% |
This year's kindergarten class (110) is 64% larger than its 5th grade class (67).
Student demographics
61%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 53% · 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
26.4%
CA avg 49.1% . +5.4pp since 2014
Math
15.5%
CA avg 37.7% . -1.5pp since 2014
What this means: On the CAASPP, California's statewide test, about 26 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 16 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 5 points since 2014, while math scores are down about 1 points.
Performance levels, 2024-25
| Subject | Standard Exceeded | Standard Met | Standard Nearly Met | Standard Not Met |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English Language Arts | 7.4% | 19.1% | 22.9% | 50.6% |
| Math | 3.9% | 11.6% | 32.8% | 51.7% |
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 | 26.4% | 15.5% |
| 2023-24 | 22.7% | 14.4% |
| 2022-23 | 25.2% | 15.1% |
| 2021-22 | 19.9% | 15.0% |
| 2018-19 | 33.5% | 23.5% |
| 2017-18 | 37.5% | 22.1% |
| 2016-17 | 25.0% | 20.2% |
| 2015-16 | 35.0% | 19.0% |
| 2014-15 | 21.0% | 17.0% |
% 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
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of CA schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
19.7%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
35.0%
based on CA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-15.3pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 20% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 35% typical for California schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
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 Highlands Elementary
Highlands Elementary's state test result (19.7% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Highlands Elementary this school | 480 | 76.0% | 19.7% |
| Sutter Elementary Antioch | 450 | 75.8% | 23.9% |
| Dover Elementary Fairfield | 463 | 81.4% | 15.0% |
| Vista La Mesa Academy La Mesa | 518 | 71.8% | 32.2% |
| Flora Arca Mata Stockton | 487 | 80.1% | 28.4% |
| McKinley Pasadena | 538 | 78.4% | 21.8% |
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 Highlands Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In California | In Contra Costa County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 19.7% | #4,601 of 5,151 | #117 of 149 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 15.5% | #4,698 of 5,172 ▲ 32 | #123 of 153 ▲ 7 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 26.4% | #4,339 of 5,172 ▲ 173 | #112 of 153 ▲ 7 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +3.5pp | #2,125 of 5,116 | #42 of 150 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 480 | #2,684 of 5,915 | #80 of 164 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 22.9:1 | #2,875 of 5,352 | #82 of 162 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 60.6% | #1,767 of 5,354 | #102 of 162 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 76.0% | #2,546 of 5,625 | #39 of 158 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -3.6% | #3,479 of 3,837 | #94 of 107 |
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
480
-25 (-5%) vs 2020
-35% since 1990-91, when it was 733
Student : Teacher
22.9:1
was 22.9:1
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 | 480 | 21 | 22.9:1 | 76% (365) |
| 2023-24 | 473 | 20 | 23.6:1 | 77% (365) |
| 2022-23 | 483 | 21.6 | 22.4:1 | 74% (356) |
| 2020-21 | 505 | 22 | 22.9:1 | 76% (385) |
| 2017-18 | 498 | 23 | 21.6:1 | 79% (392) |
| 2015-16 | 519 | 21 | 24.7:1 | 82% (426) |
| 2010-11 | 624 | N/A | N/A | 81% (508) |
| 2000-01 | 691 | 36 | 19.2:1 | 66% (455) |
| 1990-91 | 733 | 30 | 24.4:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Highlands Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 4% (498 to 480); teachers down 9% (23 to 21).
About Highlands Elementary
This page covers Highlands Elementary, a mid-sized elementary school in Pittsburg, California. Enrollment totals 480 students across kindergarten through 5.
Within Pittsburg Unified, Highlands Elementary is one of 13 schools. The district enrolls 10,633 students.
About 59% of the student body at Highlands Elementary is Hispanic. Enrollment also includes 15% Black, 10% Asian, 8% White, and 6% multiracial. Among people living in Contra Costa County, the Hispanic share is about 28%. Its diversity index, the chance that two randomly chosen students belong to different racial or ethnic groups, is 61%.
Highlands Elementary reports a ratio of 22.9 students per teacher, from 21 full-time-equivalent teachers. It is about the same as the 22.3:1 average for elementary schools in California. At Highlands Elementary, 76% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch in 2024-25. Public schools in Contra Costa County average 45%.
Test results at Highlands Elementary are 15.3 points below what its student poverty level predicts. The average proficiency rate across its state test results is 19.7%, compared with a predicted 35.0%, which ranks in the bottom 10% in California.
American Community Survey estimates for Contra Costa County show that the median household earns about $127,229 a year, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 45%, and about 6% of people live in poverty. Contra Costa County has 280 public schools with about 167,423 students, including Highlands Elementary.
Hillview Junior High is the nearest public school to Highlands Elementary, about 0.4 miles away. Within five miles of Highlands Elementary, there are at least 8 other public schools. On proficiency, Highlands Elementary is behind the 25.4% nearby average, ranking 7th of 7.
The NCES locale for Highlands Elementary is Suburb: Large, which covers schools in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
The school's enrollment fell 5% from 2020-21 to 2024-25.
This page is set up for the Highlands Elementary community to discuss homework, tutoring, and testing dates. Members of the school community can share what they know.
Contra Costa County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
1,165,012
Census ACS
Median income
$127,229
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
45%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
6%
Below federal line
Schools in county
280
167,423 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Pittsburg Unified
- Pittsburg Senior HighHigh · 3,403 students
- Hillview Junior HighMiddle · 893 students
- Rancho Medanos Junior HighMiddle · 812 students
- Martin Luther King Jr. Junior HighMiddle · 706 students
- Los Medanos ElementaryElementary · 665 students
- Marina Vista ElementaryElementary · 612 students
Other schools in Pittsburg
- Pittsburg Senior HighHigh · 3,403 students
- Hillview Junior HighMiddle · 893 students
- Rancho Medanos Junior HighMiddle · 812 students
- Martin Luther King Jr. Junior HighMiddle · 706 students
- Los Medanos ElementaryElementary · 665 students
- Delta View ElementaryElementary · 656 students
Other Highlands Elementary schools
24 other US public schools in 13 states are named Highlands Elementary. Highlands Elementary is the 14th largest of the 25.
- Highlands ElementarySaugus, CA · 666 students
- Highlands ElementaryConcord, CA · 512 students
- Highlands ElementarySan Mateo, CA · 379 students
- Highlands ElementarySpring Valley, CA · 357 students
- Highlands Elementary SchoolHIGHLANDS, TX · 868 students
Nearby schools
- Hillview Junior High0.4 mi · 893
- Foothill Elementary0.6 mi · 551
- Golden Gate Community0.7 mi · 69
- Black Diamond High (Continuation)0.8 mi · 205
- Heights Elementary0.9 mi · 547
- Stoneman Elementary0.9 mi · 602
Frequently asked questions
About Highlands ElementaryHow many students attend Highlands Elementary?
Highlands Elementary enrolls approximately 480 students in grades KG-05.
What age range does Highlands Elementary serve?
Highlands Elementary serves students from grade KG through grade 05.
How many teachers does Highlands Elementary have?
Highlands Elementary employs 21 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 22.9:1.
What is the racial breakdown of students at Highlands Elementary?
At Highlands Elementary, the student body is approximately 8% White, 59% Hispanic, 15% Black, 10% Asian, 6% Two or more.
Is Highlands Elementary public or private?
Highlands Elementary is a public K-12 school, overseen by Pittsburg Unified.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.