Joshua Cowell Elementary

Joshua Cowell Elementary is an elementary-level community of sprawling scale in Manteca, California, operated by Manteca Unified, works with 702 students in grades K through 8. Compared to the state average of about 465 students per school, that is 51% bigger than typical.

Joshua Cowell Elementary is one of 30 schools operated by Manteca Unified, a district that instructs 25,347 students overall.

Demographically, Joshua Cowell Elementary logs that 53% of students identify as Hispanic, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. The remainder comes out to 19% Asian, 17% White, 5% multiracial, 3% Black. The wider county runs roughly 43% Hispanic, putting the school's mix noticeably more Hispanic than the area baseline.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Staff filings list 31 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 22.3:1 students per teacher. That tracks the state average closely. An estimated 66% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, On a poverty-adjusted basis, Joshua Cowell Elementary sits in the bottom 10% statewide. Predicted proficiency from the FRL regression is roughly 40.0%; actual is 18.7%, a gap of -21.3 points.

Across the wider county, San Joaquin County reports that median household earnings sit near $92,179, roughly 23% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 10% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across San Joaquin County's 251 public schools (combined enrollment of about 153,026 students), Joshua Cowell Elementary is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Calla High, roughly 0.8 miles away. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Joshua Cowell Elementary. On composite proficiency, Joshua Cowell Elementary comes 4th of 6 in the immediate cluster, below the nearby-schools average of 25.7%.

Geographically, the school is in a residential area.

Looking at the recent track record. Over the past 7-year window, the student count ticked up 22%: 576 students in 2018 compared to 702 in 2025. Over the same period, the White share shrank from 24% to 17%. Class-load math has fell: from 24.0:1 in 2018 to 22.3:1 in 2025.

Within the allk12 community for this school, members of the Joshua Cowell Elementary community share and discuss science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.