1
If you could change one rule at Starlight Elementary, what would it be?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
383
Elementary
DISTRICT 434 · STATE 465
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·PAJARO VALLEY UNIFIED·NCES 062949009601
Starlight Elementary
225 Hammer Dr., Watsonville, CA 95076 · (831) 728-6974 · Santa Cruz County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY13-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL383 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
21.4:1
18 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 21.4:1 · STATE 22.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
92%
351 students
DISTRICT 81% · 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 | 76 | 20% |
| Grade 1 | 70 | 18% |
| Grade 2 | 59 | 15% |
| Grade 3 | 62 | 16% |
| Grade 4 | 57 | 15% |
| Grade 5 | 59 | 15% |
This year's kindergarten class (76) is 29% larger than its 5th grade class (59).
Student demographics
5%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 27% · 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
22.7%
CA avg 49.1% . -3.3pp since 2014
Math
25.1%
CA avg 37.7% . +1.1pp since 2014
What this means: On the CAASPP, California's statewide test, about 23 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 25 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all California schools, those numbers are about 49 and 38. Reading and writing scores are down about 3 points since 2014, while math scores are up about 1 points.
Performance levels, 2024-25
| Subject | Standard Exceeded | Standard Met | Standard Nearly Met | Standard Not Met |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English Language Arts | 7.6% | 15.1% | 26.2% | 51.2% |
| Math | 8.2% | 17.0% | 32.2% | 42.7% |
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 | 22.7% | 25.1% |
| 2023-24 | 20.1% | 21.6% |
| 2022-23 | 20.4% | 21.0% |
| 2021-22 | 20.5% | 19.0% |
| 2018-19 | 21.1% | 28.3% |
| 2017-18 | 21.1% | 25.4% |
| 2016-17 | 19.3% | 18.3% |
| 2015-16 | 27.0% | 26.0% |
| 2014-15 | 26.0% | 24.0% |
% 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
22.5%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
25.8%
based on CA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-3.3pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 23% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 26% 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 Starlight Elementary
Starlight Elementary's state test result (22.5% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 4 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starlight Elementary this school | 383 | 91.6% | 22.5% |
| John F. Kennedy Elementary Indio | 390 | 91.3% | 11.6% |
| Fremont Elementary Santa Ana | 394 | 92.9% | 36.7% |
| Montebello Park Elementary Los Angeles | 365 | 91.5% | 29.7% |
| Arts In Action Community Charter Los Angeles | 404 | 91.3% | N/A |
| Loma Vista Elementary Whittier | 379 | 92.3% | 35.4% |
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 Starlight Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In California | In Santa Cruz County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 22.5% | #4,330 of 5,151 | #27 of 36 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 25.1% | #3,752 of 5,172 ▲ 247 | #26 of 36 ▲ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 22.7% | #4,676 of 5,172 ▲ 46 | #27 of 36 no change |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +4.2pp | #1,923 of 5,116 | #10 of 36 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 383 | #3,887 of 5,915 | #22 of 39 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 21.4:1 | #1,748 of 5,352 | #13 of 33 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 4.6% | #5,217 of 5,354 | #32 of 33 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 91.6% | #879 of 5,625 | #7 of 37 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -40.7% | #134 of 3,837 | #1 of 30 |
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
383
-152 (-28%) vs 2020
-31% since 1990-91, when it was 556
Student : Teacher
21.4:1
was 21.4:1
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 | 383 | 17.9 | 21.4:1 | 92% (351) |
| 2023-24 | 414 | 20.2 | 20.5:1 | 93% (387) |
| 2022-23 | 447 | 22.5 | 19.9:1 | 89% (399) |
| 2020-21 | 535 | 25 | 21.4:1 | 85% (457) |
| 2017-18 | 646 | 26 | 24.9:1 | 87% (560) |
| 2015-16 | 667 | 27 | 24.7:1 | 92% (613) |
| 2010-11 | 590 | N/A | N/A | 91% (539) |
| 2000-01 | 729 | 38 | 19.2:1 | 78% (568) |
| 1990-91 | 556 | 22 | 25.3:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Starlight Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 41% (646 to 383); teachers down 31% (26 to 17.9).
About Starlight Elementary
Starlight Elementary is a small elementary school that serves part of Watsonville, California. The school has 383 students in 2024-25 across kindergarten through 5.
Starlight Elementary reports to Pajaro Valley Unified, which has 33 schools and 16,482 students.
Roughly 98% of students at Starlight Elementary are Hispanic. By comparison, Santa Cruz County residents are about 35% Hispanic. On the diversity index, which measures the chance that two random students are from different groups, Starlight Elementary scores 5%.
On staff are 17.9 full-time-equivalent teachers; the student-to-teacher ratio is 21.4:1. Statewide, elementary schools in California average 22.3:1. Starlight Elementary has a free or reduced-price lunch rate of 92%. By comparison, the figure for public schools in Santa Cruz County is 52%.
Predicted from its free or reduced-price lunch share, Starlight Elementary would score about 25.8%. It scores 22.5%, 3.3 points below that figure.
In Santa Cruz County, the median household earns about $111,093 a year, about 44% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and roughly 6% of residents are in poverty. Santa Cruz County has 83 public schools with about 36,316 students, including Starlight Elementary.
Straight-line distance to the nearest public school, Cesar E. Chavez Middle, is about 0.2 miles. Within five miles are at least 8 other public schools. Starlight Elementary is 2nd of 8 nearby schools by average proficiency rate.
Federal data place Starlight Elementary in the City: Small locale, which means it is inside a principal city with a population under 100,000.
A 28% decrease took enrollment from 535 in 2020-21 to 383 in 2024-25.
The allk12 page for Starlight Elementary lets the school community talk about pickup and drop-off, after-school programs, and teacher feedback. You can also rate the school on this page.
Santa Cruz County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
264,926
Census ACS
Median income
$111,093
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
44%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
6%
Below federal line
Schools in county
83
36,316 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Pajaro Valley Unified
- Watsonville HighHigh · 2,215 students
- Pajaro Valley HighHigh · 1,293 students
- Aptos HighHigh · 1,274 students
- Alianza CharterElementary · 626 students
- Rolling Hills MiddleMiddle · 588 students
- Aptos Junior HighMiddle · 587 students
Other schools in Watsonville
- Watsonville HighHigh · 2,215 students
- Pajaro Valley HighHigh · 1,293 students
- Alianza CharterElementary · 626 students
- Rolling Hills MiddleMiddle · 588 students
- Cesar E. Chavez MiddleMiddle · 548 students
- Bradley ElementaryElementary · 520 students
Other Starlight Elementary schools
One other US public school is named Starlight Elementary. Starlight Elementary is the 2nd largest of the 2.
- Starlight ElementaryBeaumont, CA · 872 students
Nearby schools
- Cesar E. Chavez Middle0.2 mi · 548
- Diamond Technology Institute0.2 mi · 87
- H. A. Hyde Elementary0.4 mi · 476
- New School Community Day0.6 mi · 42
- Landmark Elementary0.6 mi · 419
- Rolling Hills Middle0.8 mi · 588
Frequently asked questions
About Starlight ElementaryHow many students attend Starlight Elementary?
Starlight Elementary enrolls approximately 383 students in grades KG-05.
Is Starlight Elementary an elementary, middle, or high school?
Starlight Elementary is an elementary school covering grades KG-05.
How many students per teacher at Starlight Elementary?
Approximately 21.4:1 students per teacher at Starlight Elementary.
What is the student diversity at Starlight Elementary?
Student demographics at Starlight Elementary are roughly 2% White, 98% Hispanic, 1% Asian.
Who oversees Starlight Elementary?
Starlight Elementary is overseen by Pajaro Valley Unified in Santa Cruz County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.