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What's something Murdock-Portal Elementary does better than most schools?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
551
Elementary
DISTRICT 493 · STATE 465
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·CUPERTINO UNION·NCES 061029005406
Murdock-Portal Elementary
1188 Wunderlich Dr., San Jose, CA 95129 · (408) 973-8191 · Santa Clara County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY11-CITYREGULAR SCHOOL551 STUDENTS
A+
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 97% of California public elementary schools
- A+Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- A+Beats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- CThree-year trend Change in reading and math proficiency over the last three test years.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded California public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
24.2:1
23 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 22.3:1 · STATE 22.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
9%
47 students
DISTRICT 19% · 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 | 96 | 17% |
| Grade 1 | 95 | 17% |
| Grade 2 | 94 | 17% |
| Grade 3 | 95 | 17% |
| Grade 4 | 87 | 16% |
| Grade 5 | 84 | 15% |
This year's kindergarten class (96) is 14% larger than its 5th grade class (84).
Student demographics
23%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 48% · 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
94.3%
CA avg 49.1% . +1.3pp since 2014
Math
95.8%
CA avg 37.7% . +3.8pp since 2014
What this means: On the CAASPP, California's statewide test, about 94 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 96 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 1 points since 2014, while math scores are up about 4 points.
Performance levels, 2024-25
| Subject | Standard Exceeded | Standard Met | Standard Nearly Met | Standard Not Met |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English Language Arts | 73.7% | 20.6% | 3.8% | 1.9% |
| Math | 83.6% | 12.2% | 3.8% | 0.4% |
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 | 94.3% | 95.8% |
| 2023-24 | 94.8% | 96.3% |
| 2022-23 | 94.2% | 96.7% |
| 2021-22 | 94.8% | 96.3% |
| 2020-21 | 88.6% | 93.7% |
| 2018-19 | 92.5% | 93.3% |
| 2017-18 | 91.6% | 93.7% |
| 2016-17 | 92.5% | 92.9% |
| 2015-16 | 95.0% | 94.0% |
| 2014-15 | 93.0% | 92.0% |
% 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
OUTPERFORMING
Top 10% of CA schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
95.3%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
74.5%
based on CA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+20.8pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 95% of students here test proficient in math and reading, well above the roughly 75% typical for California schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations ranks schools against others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school can post high scores and still fall short of its prediction, or post lower scores and still beat it. This school clears its prediction by about 21 points, placing it in California's top 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 Murdock-Portal Elementary
Murdock-Portal Elementary's state test result (95.3% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 4 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Murdock-Portal Elementary this school | 551 | 8.5% | 95.3% |
| William Faria Elementary Cupertino | 614 | 12.5% | 95.5% |
| Evelyn Costa Elementary Mountain House | 612 | 6.2% | 78.2% |
| Millikin Elementary Santa Clara | 504 | 4.2% | 91.1% |
| James Leitch Elementary Fremont | 523 | 14.9% | N/A |
| John Muir Elementary San Jose | 557 | 8.4% | 91.9% |
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 Murdock-Portal Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In California | In Santa Clara County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 95.3% | #3 of 5,151 | #2 of 226 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 95.8% | #2 of 5,172 ▲ 1 | #2 of 226 no change |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 94.3% | #3 of 5,172 ▼ 1 | #1 of 226 no change |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest drop first | -0.5pp | #1,637 of 5,116 | #122 of 225 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 551 | #1,847 of 5,915 | #44 of 255 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 24.2:1 | #3,878 of 5,352 | #194 of 247 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 23.2% | #4,260 of 5,354 | #223 of 247 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 8.5% | #5,504 of 5,625 | #227 of 252 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -4.3% | #3,395 of 3,837 | #176 of 189 |
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
551
-22 (-4%) vs 2020
+26% since 2000-01, when it was 436
Student : Teacher
24.2:1
was 26.1:1
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 | 551 | 22.8 | 24.2:1 | 9% (47) |
| 2023-24 | 562 | 22.6 | 24.8:1 | 10% (58) |
| 2022-23 | 559 | 22.5 | 24.9:1 | 8% (43) |
| 2020-21 | 573 | 22 | 26.1:1 | 2% (12) |
| 2017-18 | 576 | 21.2 | 27.2:1 | 3% (17) |
| 2015-16 | 573 | 22 | 26.1:1 | 1% (8) |
| 2010-11 | 537 | N/A | N/A | 1% (7) |
| 2000-01 | 436 | 21 | 20.8:1 | 0% (0) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Murdock-Portal Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 4% (576 to 551); teachers up 8% (21.2 to 22.8).
About Murdock-Portal Elementary
In San Jose, California, Murdock-Portal Elementary is a mid-sized elementary school. It offers kindergarten through 5 and has 551 students enrolled.
Cupertino Union operates 23 schools. Combined enrollment is 13,526 students.
Of every 100 students at Murdock-Portal Elementary, about 87 are Asian. After that, the student body is 11% multiracial. Census figures show Santa Clara County is about 41% Asian. A diversity index of 23% means there is a 23% chance two randomly chosen students at Murdock-Portal Elementary are from different groups.
The school has 22.8 full-time-equivalent teachers and a ratio of 24.2 students per teacher. Elementary schools in California average 22.3:1, 1.9 fewer students per teacher than here. Of all students at Murdock-Portal Elementary, 9% are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. For comparison, public schools in Santa Clara County average 37%.
Murdock-Portal Elementary holds an A+ allk12 Grade, placing it above 97% of California public elementary schools.
Test results at Murdock-Portal Elementary are 20.8 points above what its student poverty level predicts. The average proficiency rate across its state test results is 95.3%, compared with a predicted 74.5%, which ranks in the top 10% in California.
In the surrounding county, Santa Clara County, median household income comes to about $164,281, about 57% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and roughly 4% of residents are in poverty. The county has 412 public schools and about 230,059 students.
Murdock-Portal Elementary is about 0.4 miles from Lynbrook High, its nearest public school. Murdock-Portal Elementary has at least 8 other public schools within five miles. Ranking the closest schools with test data puts Murdock-Portal Elementary at 1st of 9.
The school's locale code, City: Large, means it is inside a principal city with a population of 250,000 or more.
The school's student count decreased 4% between the 2020-21 and 2024-25 school years. By 2024-25, the school had 24.2 students per teacher, compared with 26.1 in 2020-21.
The discussion board for Murdock-Portal Elementary is open to topics like special education services, counseling, and support programs. Teachers and staff are welcome to share updates too.
Santa Clara County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
1,902,047
Census ACS
Median income
$164,281
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
57%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
4%
Below federal line
Schools in county
412
230,059 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Cupertino Union
- Cupertino MiddleMiddle · 1,067 students
- Joaquin Miller MiddleMiddle · 1,067 students
- John F. Kennedy MiddleMiddle · 880 students
- Sam H. Lawson MiddleMiddle · 841 students
- Louis E. Stocklmeir ElementaryElementary · 840 students
- Warren E. Hyde MiddleMiddle · 800 students
Other schools in San Jose
- Evergreen Valley HighHigh · 2,703 students
- Independence HighHigh · 2,289 students
- Silver Creek HighHigh · 2,139 students
- Santa Teresa HighHigh · 2,134 students
- Piedmont Hills HighHigh · 1,918 students
- Leigh HighHigh · 1,884 students
Nearby schools
- Lynbrook High0.4 mi · 1,702
- Nelson S. Dilworth Elementary0.5 mi · 547
- Country Lane Elementary0.6 mi · 444
- Manuel De Vargas Elementary0.7 mi · 379
- Easterbrook Discovery0.7 mi · 952
- Joaquin Miller Middle0.7 mi · 1,067
Frequently asked questions
About Murdock-Portal ElementaryHow large is Murdock-Portal Elementary?
Murdock-Portal Elementary enrolls approximately 551 students in grades KG-05.
What age range does Murdock-Portal Elementary serve?
Murdock-Portal Elementary serves students from grade KG through grade 05.
How many students per teacher at Murdock-Portal Elementary?
Approximately 24.2:1 students per teacher at Murdock-Portal Elementary.
What is the racial breakdown of students at Murdock-Portal Elementary?
At Murdock-Portal Elementary, the student body is approximately 1% White, 1% Hispanic, 87% Asian, 11% Two or more.
Is Murdock-Portal Elementary public or private?
Murdock-Portal Elementary is a public K-12 school, overseen by Cupertino Union.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.