Howard Elementary

Howard Elementary is a medium-sized K-5 school in Madera, California, one of the schools within Madera Unified. The school educates 487 students in grades K through 8.

Howard Elementary is one of 28 schools operated by Madera Unified, a district that serves 19,922 students overall.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Howard Elementary records that 86% of students identify as Hispanic, making the school strongly Hispanic-majority. Other groups include 9% White, 4% multiracial. By comparison, Madera County as a whole is about 61% Hispanic, so the school skews visibly more Hispanic than its surroundings.

In terms of school funding signals, The school currently runs with 26 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 18.8:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 22.3:1, putting Howard Elementary tighter than the state norm the norm. Around 79% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, often used as a Title I proxy.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Howard Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 32.5%, the actual is 29.4%, a residual of -3.1 points.

In the surrounding community, Madera County reports that median household income runs about $76,627, 18% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 14%. Howard Elementary is one of 81 public schools in Madera County (combined enrollment of about 32,251 students).

Nearest neighbor: Lincoln Elementary, around 3.0 miles off. Within five miles, there are 5 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Howard Elementary comes 4th of 7 in the immediate cluster, ahead of the nearby-schools average of 29.2%.

The school occupies a low-density site.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Howard Elementary has fell 6%, going from 518 students in 2018 to 487 in 2025. Over the same period, the White share decreased from 14% to 9%. Class-load math has narrowed: from 24.1:1 in 2018 to 18.8:1 in 2025.

On this page, the feed for Howard Elementary typically covers fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.