McPherson Magnet

McPherson Magnet operates as a heavily attended elementary campus in Orange, California, overseen by Orange Unified. Current enrollment sits at 863 students spanning grades K through 8. Enrollment runs roughly 86% larger than the state mean of about 465.

Across the 40 schools in Orange Unified (23,790 students total), McPherson Magnet accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

Looking at the student body, McPherson Magnet logs that the largest single group is Hispanic at 53%, but no single group is in the majority. The remainder comes out to 25% White, 12% Asian, 8% multiracial. By comparison, Orange County as a whole is about 34% Hispanic, so the school skews meaningfully more Hispanic than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, Staff filings list 34 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 25.7:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 22.3:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. An estimated 42% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. That share is noticeably below Orange County's rate of about 55%.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), McPherson Magnet performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 54.5%, the actual is 63.8%, a residual of +9.3 points.

Around the school, ACS estimates for Orange County put the typical household earns roughly $116,289 per year, 44% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and roughly 7% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, Orange County runs 649 public schools (combined enrollment of about 430,458 students), of which McPherson Magnet is one.

Nearest neighbor: La Veta Elementary, around 0.5 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around McPherson Magnet. Among the 6 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), McPherson Magnet ranks 1st on composite proficiency, ahead of the local average of 41.0%.

Geographically, the school is in a metropolitan area.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at McPherson Magnet has changed only slightly, going from 878 students in 2018 to 863 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 37% to 25% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio rose from 23.9:1 in 2018 to 25.7:1 today.

On allk12, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. Members of the school community can share what they know.