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What clubs or activities at Spruce Elementary are worth joining?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
384
Elementary
DISTRICT 389 · STATE 465
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO UNIFIED·NCES 063753006354
Spruce Elementary
501 Spruce Ave., South San Francisco, CA 94080 · (650) 877-8780 · San Mateo County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY13-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL384 STUDENTS
F
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 2% of California public elementary schools
- DTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- FBeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- FThree-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
22.6:1
17 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 21.5:1 · STATE 22.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
61%
235 students
DISTRICT 43% · STATE 65%
Community
1
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 | 73 | 19% |
| Grade 1 | 61 | 16% |
| Grade 2 | 70 | 18% |
| Grade 3 | 47 | 12% |
| Grade 4 | 66 | 17% |
| Grade 5 | 67 | 17% |
This year's kindergarten class (73) is 9% larger than its 5th grade class (67).
Student demographics
36%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 63% · 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
25.0%
CA avg 49.1% . +5.0pp since 2014
Math
19.4%
CA avg 37.7% . +0.4pp since 2014
What this means: On the CAASPP, California's statewide test, about 25 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 19 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 5 points since 2014, while math scores have held steady.
Performance levels, 2024-25
| Subject | Standard Exceeded | Standard Met | Standard Nearly Met | Standard Not Met |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English Language Arts | 8.0% | 17.1% | 24.4% | 50.6% |
| Math | 6.3% | 13.1% | 33.7% | 46.9% |
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 | 25.0% | 19.4% |
| 2023-24 | 21.0% | 22.8% |
| 2022-23 | 26.2% | 25.5% |
| 2021-22 | 33.2% | 28.9% |
| 2020-21 | 23.6% | 23.3% |
| 2018-19 | 34.0% | 40.7% |
| 2017-18 | 26.4% | 29.4% |
| 2016-17 | 25.5% | 32.8% |
| 2015-16 | 24.0% | 29.0% |
| 2014-15 | 20.0% | 19.0% |
% 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
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of CA schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
21.9%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
43.7%
based on CA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-21.8pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 22% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 44% typical for California schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
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 Spruce Elementary
Spruce Elementary's state test result (21.9% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spruce Elementary this school | 384 | 61.2% | 21.9% |
| Walter L. Bachrodt Elementary San Jose | 398 | 61.3% | 30.1% |
| Christopher Elementary San Jose | 446 | 63.9% | 22.2% |
| Laurel Wood Elementary Salinas | 417 | 60.2% | 23.6% |
| Scott Lane Elementary Santa Clara | 406 | 55.2% | 29.1% |
| Rogers (Greg) Elementary Chula Vista | 382 | 55.0% | 32.9% |
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 Spruce Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In California | In San Mateo County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 21.9% | #4,402 of 5,151 | #83 of 96 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 19.4% | #4,354 of 5,172 ▼ 483 | #84 of 96 ▼ 3 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 25.0% | #4,485 of 5,172 ▲ 171 | #82 of 96 ▲ 4 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest drop first | -8.8pp | #179 of 5,116 | #10 of 96 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 384 | #3,877 of 5,915 | #43 of 106 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 22.6:1 | #2,671 of 5,352 | #62 of 99 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 36.2% | #3,655 of 5,354 | #86 of 99 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 61.2% | #3,429 of 5,625 | #26 of 103 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -30.3% | #529 of 3,837 | #12 of 79 |
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
384
-82 (-18%) vs 2020
-26% since 1990-91, when it was 516
Student : Teacher
22.6:1
was 22.2:1
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 | 384 | 17 | 22.6:1 | 61% (235) |
| 2023-24 | 394 | 18 | 21.9:1 | 64% (254) |
| 2022-23 | 408 | 18 | 22.7:1 | 61% (250) |
| 2020-21 | 466 | 21 | 22.2:1 | 62% (287) |
| 2017-18 | 551 | 24.4 | 22.6:1 | 69% (380) |
| 2015-16 | 626 | 26 | 24.1:1 | 67% (420) |
| 2010-11 | 659 | N/A | N/A | 75% (494) |
| 2000-01 | 617 | 31 | 19.9:1 | 56% (347) |
| 1990-91 | 516 | 21 | 24.6:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Spruce Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 30% (551 to 384); teachers down 30% (24.4 to 17).
About Spruce Elementary
Spruce Elementary is one of the public schools in South San Francisco, California. It is a small elementary school. The school counted 384 students in 2024-25, covering kindergarten through 5.
South San Francisco Unified enrolls 7,644 students in 15 schools, including Spruce Elementary.
The largest group at Spruce Elementary is Hispanic students, at 79%. Other groups make up 11% Asian, 4% White, and 2% Black. County-wide, 25% of San Mateo County residents are Hispanic. Measured by the diversity index, the student body scores 36%.
The school had 17 full-time-equivalent teachers in 2024-25. Its student-to-teacher ratio is 22.6:1. That is in line with the 22.3:1 average for elementary schools in California. The school reported 61% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch in 2024-25. That is 27 points above the 34% average for public schools in San Mateo County.
Among California public elementary schools, Spruce Elementary outscored 2%, which works out to an F on the allk12 Grade.
Spruce Elementary is a bottom-10% school in California on BeatsExpectations, with an actual average proficiency rate across its state test results of 21.9% against a predicted 43.7%.
Census data for San Mateo County show median household income comes to about $158,855, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 54%, and about 4% of people live in poverty. There are 176 public schools in the county, enrolling about 82,403, Spruce Elementary among them.
About 0.5 miles separate Spruce Elementary from the closest public school, Martin Elementary. A five-mile radius around the school includes at least 8 other public schools. Spruce Elementary's average proficiency of 21.9% compares with 35.9% for its nearest scored neighbors.
NCES assigns Spruce Elementary the locale City: Small, meaning inside a principal city with a population under 100,000.
Federal enrollment counts decreased from 466 (2020-21) to 384 (2024-25).
Parents, students, and staff can share information on special education services, counseling, and support programs here. Parents, students, alumni, and staff are welcome to post.
San Mateo County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
742,340
Census ACS
Median income
$158,855
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
54%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
4%
Below federal line
Schools in county
176
82,403 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in South San Francisco Unified
- South San Francisco HighHigh · 1,239 students
- El Camino HighHigh · 1,053 students
- Alta Loma MiddleMiddle · 652 students
- Buri Buri ElementaryElementary · 584 students
- Parkway Heights MiddleMiddle · 573 students
- Monte Verde ElementaryElementary · 517 students
Other schools in South San Francisco
- South San Francisco HighHigh · 1,239 students
- El Camino HighHigh · 1,053 students
- Alta Loma MiddleMiddle · 652 students
- Buri Buri ElementaryElementary · 584 students
- Parkway Heights MiddleMiddle · 573 students
- Westborough MiddleMiddle · 498 students
Other Spruce Elementary schools
One other US public school is named Spruce Elementary. Spruce Elementary is the 2nd largest of the 2.
- Spruce ElementaryLYNNWOOD, WA · 632 students
Nearby schools
- Martin Elementary0.5 mi · 370
- Parkway Heights Middle0.6 mi · 573
- Los Cerritos Elementary0.8 mi · 304
- South San Francisco High1.0 mi · 1,239
- Sunshine Gardens Elementary1.2 mi · 329
- Baden High (Continuation)1.2 mi · 130
Frequently asked questions
About Spruce ElementaryHow large is Spruce Elementary?
Spruce Elementary enrolls approximately 384 students in grades KG-05.
What age range does Spruce Elementary serve?
Spruce Elementary serves students from grade KG through grade 05.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Spruce Elementary?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Spruce Elementary is approximately 22.6:1 (17 FTE teachers).
How diverse is Spruce Elementary?
Spruce Elementary reports a student body of 4% White, 79% Hispanic, 2% Black, 11% Asian, 2% Two or more.
Who oversees Spruce Elementary?
Spruce Elementary is overseen by South San Francisco Unified in San Mateo County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.