1
What tradition at Sunny Sands Elementary should never be changed?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
692
Elementary
DISTRICT 583 · STATE 465
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·PALM SPRINGS UNIFIED·NCES 062955009603
Sunny Sands Elementary
69-310 McCallum Way, Cathedral City, CA 92234 · (760) 770-8635 · Riverside County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL692 STUDENTS
A-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 79% of California public elementary schools
- BTest 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
21.0:1
33 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 19.8:1 · STATE 22.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
93%
646 students
DISTRICT 94% · 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 | 135 | 20% |
| Grade 1 | 85 | 12% |
| Grade 2 | 136 | 20% |
| Grade 3 | 108 | 16% |
| Grade 4 | 110 | 16% |
| Grade 5 | 118 | 17% |
This year's kindergarten class (135) is 14% larger than its 5th grade class (118).
Student demographics
28%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 31% · 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
48.0%
CA avg 49.1% . +18.0pp since 2014
Math
43.0%
CA avg 37.7% . +22.0pp since 2014
What this means: On the CAASPP, California's statewide test, about 48 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 43 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 18 points since 2014, while math scores are up about 22 points.
Performance levels, 2024-25
| Subject | Standard Exceeded | Standard Met | Standard Nearly Met | Standard Not Met |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English Language Arts | 23.9% | 24.2% | 22.0% | 30.0% |
| Math | 15.8% | 27.1% | 24.4% | 32.6% |
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 | 48.0% | 43.0% |
| 2023-24 | 46.9% | 39.9% |
| 2022-23 | 45.7% | 45.9% |
| 2021-22 | 44.9% | 37.1% |
| 2018-19 | 47.3% | 43.4% |
| 2017-18 | 46.1% | 43.8% |
| 2016-17 | 50.8% | 46.2% |
| 2015-16 | 44.0% | 37.0% |
| 2014-15 | 30.0% | 21.0% |
% 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
44.4%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
24.8%
based on CA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+19.6pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 44% of students here test proficient in math and reading, well above the roughly 25% 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 20 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 Sunny Sands Elementary
Sunny Sands Elementary's state test result (44.4% proficient) is higher than 5 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunny Sands Elementary this school | 692 | 93.4% | 44.4% |
| Noble Avenue Elementary North Hills | 656 | 94.2% | 24.7% |
| Oak Hill Elementary Escondido | 679 | 92.2% | 18.8% |
| Hazeltine Avenue Elementary Van Nuys | 621 | 94.2% | 34.0% |
| Rio Vista Elementary Cathedral City | 637 | 91.2% | 35.5% |
| Andrew Jackson Elementary Selma | 640 | 91.4% | 32.7% |
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 Sunny Sands Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In California | In Riverside County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 44.4% | #2,115 of 5,151 | #80 of 283 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 43.0% | #2,065 of 5,172 ▲ 133 | #71 of 283 ▲ 9 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 48.0% | #2,190 of 5,172 ▼ 63 | #86 of 283 ▼ 4 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +4.5pp | #1,816 of 5,116 | #109 of 280 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 692 | #802 of 5,915 | #111 of 296 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 21.0:1 | #1,490 of 5,352 | #32 of 292 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 28.2% | #4,028 of 5,354 | #211 of 292 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 93.4% | #659 of 5,625 | #32 of 294 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -9.2% | #2,790 of 3,837 | #158 of 207 |
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
692
-19 (-3%) vs 2020
-3% since 1990-91, when it was 715
Student : Teacher
21.0:1
was 23.7:1
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 | 692 | 33 | 21.0:1 | 93% (646) |
| 2023-24 | 684 | 34 | 20.1:1 | 95% (650) |
| 2022-23 | 721 | 32 | 22.6:1 | 98% (707) |
| 2020-21 | 711 | 30 | 23.7:1 | 98% (699) |
| 2017-18 | 762 | 31 | 24.6:1 | 87% (661) |
| 2015-16 | 866 | 35 | 24.7:1 | 82% (713) |
| 2010-11 | 995 | N/A | N/A | 80% (792) |
| 2000-01 | 1,046 | 56 | 18.7:1 | 61% (639) |
| 1990-91 | 715 | 27 | 26.5:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Sunny Sands Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 9% (762 to 692); teachers up 6% (31 to 33).
About Sunny Sands Elementary
Sunny Sands Elementary is an elementary school in Cathedral City, California, reachable at (760) 770-8635. The student body numbers 692 students, from kindergarten through 5. An average school in this group (elementary schools in California) has about 465 students.
Federal data list 27 schools in Palm Springs Unified, with 20,007 students enrolled.
Most students at Sunny Sands Elementary are Hispanic: 84% of enrollment. The remaining students are 7% White, 5% Asian, and 2% multiracial. Census estimates put the Hispanic share of Riverside County's population at about 51%. By the diversity index, Sunny Sands Elementary comes in at 28%.
Teachers at Sunny Sands Elementary total 33 full-time equivalents, and the ratio is 21.0:1. For comparison, elementary schools in California average 22.3:1. Federal records put free or reduced-price lunch eligibility at 93%. By comparison, the figure for public schools in Riverside County is 74%.
Measured against California public elementary schools, Sunny Sands Elementary receives an A-. The grade weighs proficiency most heavily, then how results compare with what the school's low-income share predicts, then the three-year change.
In California, Sunny Sands Elementary is one of the top 10% of schools on BeatsExpectations, with an average proficiency rate on state tests of 44.4% compared with a predicted 24.8%.
Across Riverside County, median household income is about $93,074, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 26%, and roughly 8% of residents are in poverty. Sunny Sands Elementary is among the 543 public schools in Riverside County.
The closest public school, James Workman Middle, is about 0.5 miles from Sunny Sands Elementary. Around the school, at least 8 other public schools are within five miles. Of the 8 nearby schools with scores, including this one, Sunny Sands Elementary is 1st on average proficiency.
NCES describes the area around Sunny Sands Elementary as Suburb: Large, meaning in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
The student count in 2024-25 was 692, 3% below the 711 of 2020-21. From 2020-21 to 2024-25, the ratio fell from 23.7:1 to 21.0:1.
Threads on this page can be about enrollment questions, class placement, and PTA news. Alumni can share how the school prepared them.
Riverside County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
2,478,600
Census ACS
Median income
$93,074
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
26%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
8%
Below federal line
Schools in county
543
424,872 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Palm Springs Unified
- Desert Hot Springs HighHigh · 1,687 students
- Palm Springs HighHigh · 1,497 students
- Rancho Mirage HighHigh · 1,401 students
- Cathedral City HighHigh · 1,334 students
- James Workman MiddleMiddle · 1,020 students
- Nellie N. Coffman MiddleMiddle · 914 students
Other schools in Cathedral City
- Cathedral City HighHigh · 1,334 students
- James Workman MiddleMiddle · 1,020 students
- Nellie N. Coffman MiddleMiddle · 914 students
- Agua Caliente ElementaryElementary · 645 students
- Rio Vista ElementaryElementary · 637 students
- Cathedral City ElementaryElementary · 606 students
Nearby schools
- James Workman Middle0.5 mi · 1,020
- Rancho Mirage High1.1 mi · 1,401
- Mt. San Jacinto High1.2 mi · 325
- Landau Elementary1.3 mi · 579
- Cathedral City High1.4 mi · 1,334
- Nellie N. Coffman Middle1.9 mi · 914
Frequently asked questions
About Sunny Sands ElementaryHow many students attend Sunny Sands Elementary?
Sunny Sands Elementary enrolls approximately 692 students in grades KG-05.
What grades does Sunny Sands Elementary serve?
Sunny Sands Elementary serves grades KG-05.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Sunny Sands Elementary?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Sunny Sands Elementary is approximately 21.0:1 (33 FTE teachers).
What is the racial breakdown of students at Sunny Sands Elementary?
At Sunny Sands Elementary, the student body is approximately 7% White, 84% Hispanic, 1% Black, 5% Asian, 2% Two or more.
Who oversees Sunny Sands Elementary?
Sunny Sands Elementary is overseen by Palm Springs Unified in Riverside County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.