1
Honest take: what's the hardest part about being a student at Madera Elementary?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
457
Elementary
DISTRICT 397 · STATE 465
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·WEST CONTRA COSTA UNIFIED·NCES 063255005043
Madera Elementary
8500 Madera Dr., El Cerrito, CA 94530 · (510) 231-1412 · Contra Costa County
GRADES KG–06ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL457 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
24.1:1
19 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 22.0:1 · STATE 22.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
13%
59 students
DISTRICT 66% · 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 | 84 | 18% |
| Grade 1 | 68 | 15% |
| Grade 2 | 64 | 14% |
| Grade 3 | 67 | 15% |
| Grade 4 | 60 | 13% |
| Grade 5 | 61 | 13% |
| Grade 6 | 53 | 12% |
This year's kindergarten class (84) is 58% larger than its 6th grade class (53).
Student demographics
73%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 64% · 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
77.2%
CA avg 49.1% . +4.2pp since 2014
Math
78.6%
CA avg 37.7% . +15.6pp since 2014
What this means: On the CAASPP, California's statewide test, about 77 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 79 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 4 points since 2014, while math scores are up about 16 points.
Performance levels, 2024-25
| Subject | Standard Exceeded | Standard Met | Standard Nearly Met | Standard Not Met |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English Language Arts | 56.5% | 20.7% | 14.3% | 8.4% |
| Math | 51.7% | 26.9% | 13.4% | 8.0% |
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 | 77.2% | 78.6% |
| 2023-24 | 71.3% | 70.0% |
| 2022-23 | 70.8% | 68.2% |
| 2021-22 | 70.8% | 67.7% |
| 2018-19 | 75.7% | 68.8% |
| 2017-18 | 73.2% | 71.7% |
| 2016-17 | 68.1% | 67.4% |
| 2015-16 | 72.0% | 67.0% |
| 2014-15 | 73.0% | 63.0% |
% 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
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
74.2%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
72.0%
based on CA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+2.2pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 74% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 72% typical for California schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among California's top nor bottom 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 Madera Elementary
Madera Elementary's state test result (74.2% proficient) is higher than 2 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Madera Elementary this school | 457 | 12.9% | 74.2% |
| Oak Meadow Elementary El Dorado Hills | 412 | 15.5% | 70.9% |
| Rolling Hills Elementary San Diego | 490 | 13.1% | 79.5% |
| Overland Avenue Elementary Los Angeles | 485 | 14.0% | 88.8% |
| Donald L. Rheem Elementary Moraga | 441 | 8.4% | 84.2% |
| Buena Vista Elementary Walnut Creek | 495 | 18.2% | 72.0% |
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 Madera Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In California | In Contra Costa County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 74.2% | #457 of 5,151 | #30 of 149 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 78.6% | #288 of 5,172 ▲ 316 | #24 of 153 ▲ 12 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 77.2% | #388 of 5,172 ▲ 256 | #23 of 153 ▲ 8 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +8.7pp | #803 of 5,116 | #10 of 150 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 457 | #2,938 of 5,915 | #92 of 164 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 24.1:1 | #3,796 of 5,352 | #118 of 162 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 72.5% | #344 of 5,354 | #31 of 162 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 12.9% | #5,396 of 5,625 | #126 of 158 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -8.2% | #2,917 of 3,837 | #75 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
457
-18 (-4%) vs 2020
+54% since 1990-91, when it was 296
Student : Teacher
24.1:1
was 27.9:1
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 | 457 | 19 | 24.1:1 | 13% (59) |
| 2023-24 | 467 | 20 | 23.4:1 | 16% (74) |
| 2022-23 | 465 | 20 | 23.3:1 | 15% (68) |
| 2020-21 | 475 | 17 | 27.9:1 | 18% (87) |
| 2017-18 | 498 | 19 | 26.2:1 | 22% (109) |
| 2015-16 | 489 | 19 | 25.7:1 | 17% (85) |
| 2010-11 | 494 | N/A | N/A | 18% (87) |
| 2000-01 | 386 | 19 | 20.3:1 | 15% (57) |
| 1990-91 | 296 | 13 | 22.8:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Madera Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 8% (498 to 457); teachers unchanged (19 to 19).
About Madera Elementary
A medium-sized elementary school in El Cerrito, California, Madera Elementary is part of West Contra Costa Unified. Classes run from kindergarten through 6, and the school has 457 students.
Madera Elementary is one school in a 52-school district, West Contra Costa Unified, which enrolls 25,133 students.
At Madera Elementary, the largest share of students is White, at 40%. The next largest groups are 19% multiracial, 19% Asian, and 18% Hispanic. County-wide, about 41% of residents are White. The school's diversity index is 73%, meaning two students picked at random have a 73% chance of belonging to different racial or ethnic groups.
The school employs the equivalent of 19 full-time teachers, for a ratio of 24.1:1. That is higher than the 22.3:1 average for elementary schools in California. The free or reduced-price lunch share, often used to gauge student poverty, is 13%. It compares with 45% for public schools in Contra Costa County.
On a poverty-adjusted basis, Madera Elementary falls in the middle 80% of California schools: 74.2% actual against 72.0% predicted.
County data help place the school in context: in Contra Costa County, the median household income is $127,229, a bachelor's degree or higher is held by about 45% of adults, and the share of residents below the poverty line is 6%. Contra Costa County is home to 280 public schools and about 167,423 public school students.
The shortest distance from Madera Elementary to another public school is about 0.6 miles, to Fred T. Korematsu Middle. Other public schools within five miles: at least 8. The nearest schools with test data average 43.5%, lower than Madera Elementary's 74.2%.
In the federal locale system, Madera Elementary is coded Suburb: Large, for schools in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
Over 4 years, Madera Elementary's enrollment dropped 4%, to 457. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 27.9:1 in 2020-21 to 24.1:1 in 2024-25.
Topics for discussion here include school events, clubs, and volunteer needs. Alumni can share how the school prepared them.
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 West Contra Costa Unified
- El Cerrito HighHigh · 1,460 students
- Richmond HighHigh · 1,280 students
- Pinole Valley HighHigh · 1,245 students
- De Anza HighHigh · 1,047 students
- Hercules HighHigh · 767 students
- John F. Kennedy HighHigh · 740 students
Other schools in El Cerrito
- El Cerrito HighHigh · 1,460 students
- Fred T. Korematsu MiddleMiddle · 708 students
- Summit Public School K2High · 554 students
- Fairmont ElementaryElementary · 537 students
- Harding ElementaryElementary · 481 students
- Invictus Academy of RichmondHigh · 403 students
Other Madera Elementary schools
One other US public school is named Madera Elementary. Madera Elementary is the largest of the 2.
- Madera ElementarySimi Valley, CA · 264 students
Nearby schools
- Fred T. Korematsu Middle0.6 mi · 708
- Summit Public School K20.8 mi · 554
- Invictus Academy of Richmond0.9 mi · 403
- Mira Vista Elementary1.2 mi · 510
- Kensington Elementary1.4 mi · 473
- El Cerrito High1.4 mi · 1,460
Frequently asked questions
About Madera ElementaryWhat is the total enrollment at Madera Elementary?
Madera Elementary enrolls approximately 457 students in grades KG-06.
What age range does Madera Elementary serve?
Madera Elementary serves students from grade KG through grade 06.
How many students per teacher at Madera Elementary?
Approximately 24.1:1 students per teacher at Madera Elementary.
What is the racial breakdown of students at Madera Elementary?
At Madera Elementary, the student body is approximately 40% White, 18% Hispanic, 2% Black, 19% Asian, 19% Two or more.
Is Madera Elementary public or private?
Madera Elementary is a public K-12 school, overseen by West Contra Costa Unified.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.