Madera Elementary

Located at 8500 Madera Dr., in El Cerrito, California, Madera Elementary is a moderately sized elementary-level community that educates 457 students (grades K through 6), one of the schools within West Contra Costa Unified.

Madera Elementary is one of 52 schools operated by West Contra Costa Unified, a district that caters to 25,133 students overall.

On the student-mix side, Madera Elementary lists that the largest single group is White at 40%, but no single group is in the majority. The remainder comes out to 19% multiracial, 19% Asian, 18% Hispanic. That composition is broadly in line with Contra Costa County as a whole.

On the resource side, On paper, Madera Elementary has 19 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 24.1:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 22.3:1, putting Madera Elementary higher than the state norm the norm. Roughly 13% of students at Madera Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. By comparison, Contra Costa County runs at roughly 45%, so the school's eligibility rate is meaningfully below the surrounding baseline.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Madera Elementary tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 71.8% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 70.3%.

In the broader community, census data for Contra Costa County shows the typical household earns roughly $127,229 per year, 45% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 6%. In all, Contra Costa County runs 280 public schools (combined enrollment of about 167,423 students), of which Madera Elementary is one.

Nearest neighbor: Fred T. Korematsu Middle, around 0.6 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Madera Elementary. On composite proficiency, Madera Elementary comes 2nd of 7 in the immediate cluster, higher than the nearby-schools average of 43.5%.

The campus sits in a bedroom-community setting.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Madera Elementary has contracted 8%, going from 498 students in 2018 to 457 in 2025. The Black share of enrollment decreased from 7% to 2% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio tightened from 26.2:1 in 2018 to 24.1:1 today.

On allk12, the feed for Madera Elementary typically covers classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. The community welcomes input from current and former families.