Norris Elementary

As a sizable primary school in Bakersfield, California, Norris Elementary teaches 810 students from grades K through 6, run under Norris Elementary. That puts it 74% larger than the typical public school in California, which averages around 465 students.

Norris Elementary comprises 5 schools with combined enrollment of 4,153 students; Norris Elementary is among them.

Looking at the student body, Norris Elementary records that the largest single group is Hispanic at 44%, but no single group is in the majority. The remainder breaks down as 40% White, 7% Asian, 5% multiracial, 2% Black. By comparison, Kern County as a whole is about 57% Hispanic, so the school skews considerably less Hispanic than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, The school lists 38 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 21.2:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 22.3:1 average. Roughly 37% of students at Norris Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. That share is noticeably below Kern County's rate of about 76%.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Norris Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 57.2%, the actual is 53.0%, a residual of -4.2 points.

In the broader community, the surrounding county (Kern County) records that the typical household earns roughly $70,210 per year, 19% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 15%. In all, Kern County runs 279 public schools (combined enrollment of about 197,431 students), of which Norris Elementary is one.

Nearest neighbor: Veterans Elementary, around 0.5 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Norris Elementary. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Norris Elementary at 3rd of 9; the average score across the group is 47.8%.

The school occupies a metropolitan site.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Norris Elementary has decreased 19%, going from 1,003 students in 2018 to 810 in 2025. The White share of enrollment decreased from 54% to 40% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio narrowed from 28.7:1 in 2018 to 21.2:1 today.

On this page, posts here usually surface around enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. The community welcomes input from current and former families.