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What's one thing Trabuco Mesa Elementary gets right about preparing students for what comes next?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
640
Elementary
DISTRICT 529 · STATE 465
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·SADDLEBACK VALLEY UNIFIED·NCES 063386009186
Trabuco Mesa Elementary
21301 Avenida de los Flores, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688 · (949) 858-3339 · Orange County
GRADES KG–06ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL640 STUDENTS
A
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 87% 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.
- ABeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- C-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
25.1:1
26 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 23.4:1 · STATE 22.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
37%
238 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 | 72 | 11% |
| Grade 1 | 92 | 14% |
| Grade 2 | 80 | 13% |
| Grade 3 | 99 | 15% |
| Grade 4 | 86 | 13% |
| Grade 5 | 111 | 17% |
| Grade 6 | 100 | 16% |
This year's kindergarten class (72) is 28% smaller than its 6th grade class (100).
Student demographics
69%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
69.5%
CA avg 49.1% . -3.5pp since 2014
Math
67.4%
CA avg 37.7% . +4.4pp since 2014
What this means: On the CAASPP, California's statewide test, about 69 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 67 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 4 points since 2014, while math scores are up about 4 points.
Performance levels, 2024-25
| Subject | Standard Exceeded | Standard Met | Standard Nearly Met | Standard Not Met |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English Language Arts | 45.8% | 23.7% | 15.8% | 14.7% |
| Math | 46.0% | 21.3% | 19.2% | 13.4% |
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 | 69.5% | 67.4% |
| 2023-24 | 74.1% | 71.0% |
| 2022-23 | 77.3% | 68.6% |
| 2021-22 | 72.0% | 68.4% |
| 2018-19 | 71.8% | 65.5% |
| 2017-18 | 79.3% | 66.2% |
| 2016-17 | 71.4% | 59.6% |
| 2015-16 | 82.0% | 67.0% |
| 2014-15 | 73.0% | 63.0% |
% 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
70.9%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
57.8%
based on CA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+13.1pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 71% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 58% 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 Trabuco Mesa Elementary
Trabuco Mesa Elementary's state test result (70.9% proficient) is higher than 4 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trabuco Mesa Elementary this school | 640 | 37.2% | 70.9% |
| Rocklin Elementary Rocklin | 631 | 39.5% | 63.4% |
| Heritage Oak Elementary Roseville | 638 | 36.5% | 53.2% |
| Spreckels Elementary San Diego | 680 | 35.6% | 66.0% |
| Rancho Canada Elementary Lake Forest | 633 | 36.3% | 56.6% |
| Maude B. Davis Elementary Costa Mesa | 570 | 33.2% | 73.0% |
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 Trabuco Mesa Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In California | In Orange County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 70.9% | #619 of 5,151 | #96 of 381 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 67.4% | #714 of 5,172 ▼ 162 | #108 of 382 ▼ 27 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 69.5% | #770 of 5,172 ▼ 263 | #123 of 382 ▼ 44 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest drop first | -1.8pp | #1,280 of 5,116 | #100 of 381 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 640 | #1,095 of 5,915 | #79 of 404 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 25.1:1 | #4,456 of 5,352 | #261 of 398 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 68.6% | #800 of 5,354 | #70 of 398 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 37.2% | #4,458 of 5,625 | #267 of 400 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +3.6% | #847 of 1,139 | #40 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
640
-49 (-7%) vs 2020
-22% since 1990-91, when it was 823
Student : Teacher
25.1:1
was 25.5:1
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 | 640 | 25.6 | 25.1:1 | 37% (238) |
| 2023-24 | 630 | 25.9 | 24.3:1 | 33% (208) |
| 2022-23 | 654 | 28.3 | 23.1:1 | 32% (208) |
| 2020-21 | 689 | 27 | 25.5:1 | 19% (132) |
| 2017-18 | 618 | 22 | 28.1:1 | 19% (119) |
| 2015-16 | 599 | 17 | 35.2:1 | 15% (92) |
| 2010-11 | 635 | N/A | N/A | 11% (71) |
| 2000-01 | 852 | 40 | 21.3:1 | 6% (53) |
| 1990-91 | 823 | 32 | 25.7:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Trabuco Mesa Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students up 4% (618 to 640); teachers up 16% (22 to 25.6).
About Trabuco Mesa Elementary
A mid-sized elementary school in Rancho Santa Margarita, California, Trabuco Mesa Elementary is part of Saddleback Valley Unified. It offers kindergarten through 6 and has 640 students enrolled. It has 38% more students than the average for elementary schools in California (about 465).
Saddleback Valley Unified oversees Trabuco Mesa Elementary and 32 other schools, with 22,646 students in total.
At Trabuco Mesa Elementary, White students make up the biggest share, 45%. Enrollment also includes 29% Hispanic, 14% Asian, and 12% multiracial. Orange County residents are about 43% White, a similar share. On a 0 to 100 scale, the school's diversity index is 69, compared with 70 nationally.
The school's 25.6 full-time-equivalent teachers translate to a student-to-teacher ratio of 25.1:1. Elementary schools in California have an average ratio of 22.3:1. At Trabuco Mesa Elementary, 37% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch in 2024-25. That rate is below the 55% average among public schools in Orange County.
Trabuco Mesa Elementary earns an A on the allk12 Grade, which blends test scores, results against poverty-based expectations, and the three-year trend. It scored higher than 87% of California public elementary schools.
The school's average proficiency rate across its state test results is 70.9%. For its free or reduced-price lunch share, the predicted value is 57.8%.
In Orange County, home to about 3,165,820 people, median household income comes to about $116,289, 44% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 7% of people live in poverty. There are 649 public schools in the county, enrolling about 430,458, Trabuco Mesa Elementary among them.
Robinson Elementary sits about 0.4 miles from Trabuco Mesa Elementary. Trabuco Mesa Elementary has at least 8 other public schools within five miles. Among 9 nearby schools that report test results, Trabuco Mesa Elementary ranks 2nd on proficiency.
Locale: Suburb: Large. In NCES terms, the school is in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
Over the 4 years from 2020-21 to 2024-25, enrollment fell 7%.
Trabuco Mesa Elementary has a community page on allk12 for topics such as pickup and drop-off, after-school programs, and teacher feedback. You can also rate the school on this page.
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 Rancho Santa Margarita
- Rancho Santa Margarita IntermediateMiddle · 1,153 students
- Melinda Heights ElementaryElementary · 950 students
- Arroyo Vista ElementaryElementary · 508 students
- Cielo Vista ElementaryElementary · 487 students
- Arroyo Vista MiddleMiddle · 329 students
- Las Flores ElementaryElementary · 328 students
Nearby schools
- Robinson Elementary0.4 mi · 486
- Cielo Vista Elementary0.6 mi · 487
- Trabuco Elementary0.7 mi · 90
- Rancho Santa Margarita Intermediate0.9 mi · 1,153
- Melinda Heights Elementary2.0 mi · 950
- Tijeras Creek Elementary2.2 mi · 315
Frequently asked questions
About Trabuco Mesa ElementaryHow large is Trabuco Mesa Elementary?
Trabuco Mesa Elementary enrolls approximately 640 students in grades KG-06.
What age range does Trabuco Mesa Elementary serve?
Trabuco Mesa Elementary serves students from grade KG through grade 06.
How many students per teacher at Trabuco Mesa Elementary?
Approximately 25.1:1 students per teacher at Trabuco Mesa Elementary.
How diverse is Trabuco Mesa Elementary?
Trabuco Mesa Elementary reports a student body of 45% White, 29% Hispanic, 1% Black, 14% Asian, 12% Two or more.
Is Trabuco Mesa Elementary public or private?
Trabuco Mesa Elementary is a public K-12 school, overseen by Saddleback Valley Unified.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.