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If you could change one rule at Portola Hills Elementary, what would it be?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
809
Elementary
DISTRICT 529 · STATE 465
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·SADDLEBACK VALLEY UNIFIED·NCES 063386000770
Portola Hills Elementary
19422 Saddleback Ranch Rd., Trabuco Canyon, CA 92679 · (949) 459-9370 · Orange County
GRADES KG–06ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL809 STUDENTS
A
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 94% of California public elementary schools
- ATest 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.
- B+Three-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
26.3:1
31 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 23.4:1 · STATE 22.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
20%
161 students
DISTRICT 49% · 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 | 134 | 17% |
| Grade 1 | 130 | 16% |
| Grade 2 | 110 | 14% |
| Grade 3 | 106 | 13% |
| Grade 4 | 125 | 15% |
| Grade 5 | 107 | 13% |
| Grade 6 | 97 | 12% |
This year's kindergarten class (134) is 38% larger than its 6th grade class (97).
Student demographics
70%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 68% · 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
80.2%
CA avg 49.1% . +7.2pp since 2014
Math
76.2%
CA avg 37.7% . +6.2pp since 2014
What this means: On the CAASPP, California's statewide test, about 80 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 76 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 7 points since 2014, while math scores are up about 6 points.
Performance levels, 2024-25
| Subject | Standard Exceeded | Standard Met | Standard Nearly Met | Standard Not Met |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English Language Arts | 49.0% | 31.3% | 13.3% | 6.4% |
| Math | 51.6% | 24.5% | 16.7% | 7.1% |
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 | 80.2% | 76.2% |
| 2023-24 | 75.4% | 73.1% |
| 2022-23 | 78.3% | 74.1% |
| 2021-22 | 74.4% | 72.3% |
| 2018-19 | 72.4% | 72.5% |
| 2017-18 | 77.3% | 73.4% |
| 2016-17 | 74.3% | 69.1% |
| 2015-16 | 74.0% | 71.0% |
| 2014-15 | 73.0% | 70.0% |
% 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
76.6%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
67.9%
based on CA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+8.7pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 77% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 68% 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 Portola Hills Elementary
Portola Hills Elementary's state test result (76.6% proficient) is higher than 4 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portola Hills Elementary this school | 809 | 19.9% | 76.6% |
| Valhalla Elementary Pleasant Hill | 721 | 20.2% | 59.9% |
| Discovery Elementary San Marcos | 717 | 17.4% | 76.9% |
| Westwood Elementary San Diego | 832 | 14.2% | 75.3% |
| Westwood Charter Elementary Los Angeles | 670 | 19.6% | 76.4% |
| Quarry Trail Elementary Rocklin | 705 | 13.6% | 67.4% |
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 Portola Hills Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In California | In Orange County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 76.6% | #368 of 5,151 | #58 of 381 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 76.2% | #374 of 5,172 ▲ 99 | #54 of 382 ▲ 15 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 80.2% | #258 of 5,172 ▲ 191 | #45 of 382 ▲ 24 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +4.9pp | #1,698 of 5,116 | #117 of 381 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 809 | #367 of 5,915 | #34 of 404 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 26.3:1 | #4,966 of 5,352 | #320 of 398 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 70.2% | #607 of 5,354 | #44 of 398 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 19.9% | #5,153 of 5,625 | #357 of 400 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +23.9% | #184 of 1,139 | #14 of 55 |
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
809
+143 (+21%) vs 2020
-16% since 2000-01, when it was 964
Student : Teacher
26.3:1
was 29.0:1
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 | 809 | 30.7 | 26.3:1 | 20% (161) |
| 2023-24 | 758 | 28.9 | 26.2:1 | 20% (152) |
| 2022-23 | 742 | 27.5 | 26.9:1 | 17% (125) |
| 2020-21 | 666 | 23 | 29.0:1 | 9% (59) |
| 2017-18 | 653 | 22 | 29.7:1 | 8% (54) |
| 2015-16 | 780 | 27 | 28.9:1 | 7% (56) |
| 2010-11 | 805 | N/A | N/A | 7% (59) |
| 2000-01 | 964 | 47 | 20.5:1 | 2% (16) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Portola Hills Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students up 24% (653 to 809); teachers up 40% (22 to 30.7).
About Portola Hills Elementary
Portola Hills Elementary is a large elementary school. Its address is in Trabuco Canyon, California. The school enrolls 809 students, from kindergarten through 6. An average school in this group (elementary schools in California) has about 465 students.
Portola Hills Elementary is one school in a 33-school district, Saddleback Valley Unified, which enrolls 22,646 students.
Portola Hills Elementary's enrollment has no majority group, and White students are the largest at 44%. The school is also 24% Asian, 16% Hispanic, and 15% multiracial. That is close to the 43% White share among all Orange County residents. Portola Hills Elementary has a diversity index of 70%, compared with 70% for all US public school students.
Staffing totals 30.7 full-time-equivalent teachers, and the student-to-teacher ratio is 26.3:1. That ratio is over the 22.3:1 average for elementary schools in California. The free or reduced-price lunch rate at Portola Hills Elementary is 20%. The 55% average for public schools in Orange County is 35 points higher.
allk12 grades Portola Hills Elementary an A. The grade compares the school only with California public elementary schools, because each state gives its own test.
After adjusting for student poverty, Portola Hills Elementary lands between the top and bottom 10% of California schools. Its average proficiency rate on state tests is 76.6%; the prediction is 67.9%.
In the county around the school, Orange County, median household income is about $116,289, roughly 44% of adults have a four-year degree or more, and the share of residents below the poverty line is 7%. Portola Hills Elementary is among the 649 public schools in Orange County.
The shortest distance from Portola Hills Elementary to another public school is about 1.7 miles, to Foothill Ranch Elementary. The five-mile area around Portola Hills Elementary holds at least 8 other public schools. The nearest schools with test data average 54.5%, lower than Portola Hills Elementary's 76.6%.
Its location is classified as Suburb: Large by the National Center for Education Statistics.
Enrollment was 666 in 2020-21 and 809 in 2024-25, a increase of 143 students. Staffing shifted too: the ratio moved from 29.0:1 to 26.3:1.
Threads on this page can be about enrollment questions, class placement, and PTA news. Alumni can share how the school prepared them.
Orange County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
3,165,820
Census ACS
Median income
$116,289
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
44%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
7%
Below federal line
Schools in county
649
430,458 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Saddleback Valley Unified
- Trabuco Hills HighHigh · 2,475 students
- El Toro HighHigh · 1,902 students
- Mission Viejo HighHigh · 1,566 students
- Laguna Hills HighHigh · 1,317 students
- Rancho Santa Margarita IntermediateMiddle · 1,153 students
- Foothill Ranch ElementaryElementary · 990 students
Other schools in Trabuco Canyon
- Robinson ElementaryElementary · 486 students
- Trabuco ElementaryElementary · 90 students
Nearby schools
- Foothill Ranch Elementary1.7 mi · 990
- Melinda Heights Elementary1.8 mi · 950
- Trabuco Hills High2.0 mi · 2,475
- Del Lago Elementary2.6 mi · 362
- Trabuco Elementary2.8 mi · 90
- Lake Forest Elementary3.3 mi · 640
Frequently asked questions
About Portola Hills ElementaryHow many students attend Portola Hills Elementary?
Portola Hills Elementary enrolls approximately 809 students in grades KG-06.
What grades does Portola Hills Elementary serve?
Portola Hills Elementary serves grades KG-06.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Portola Hills Elementary?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Portola Hills Elementary is approximately 26.3:1 (31 FTE teachers).
What is the student diversity at Portola Hills Elementary?
Student demographics at Portola Hills Elementary are roughly 44% White, 16% Hispanic, 1% Black, 24% Asian, 15% Two or more.
Who oversees Portola Hills Elementary?
Portola Hills Elementary is overseen by Saddleback Valley Unified in Orange County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.