1
What do you wish you knew before starting at Vargas Elementary?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
435
Elementary
DISTRICT 500 · STATE 465
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·SUNNYVALE·NCES 063846002796
Vargas Elementary
1054 Carson Dr., Sunnyvale, CA 94086 · (408) 522-8267 · Santa Clara County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY12-CITYREGULAR SCHOOL435 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
17.9:1
24 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 19.0:1 · STATE 22.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
29%
127 students
DISTRICT 25% · 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 | 122 | 28% |
| Grade 1 | 75 | 17% |
| Grade 2 | 53 | 12% |
| Grade 3 | 54 | 12% |
| Grade 4 | 62 | 14% |
| Grade 5 | 69 | 16% |
This year's kindergarten class (122) is 77% larger than its 5th grade class (69).
Student demographics
59%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 70% · 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
30.7%
CA avg 49.1% . -8.3pp since 2014
Math
26.1%
CA avg 37.7% . -14.9pp since 2014
What this means: On the CAASPP, California's statewide test, about 31 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 26 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 8 points since 2014, while math scores are down about 15 points.
Performance levels, 2024-25
| Subject | Standard Exceeded | Standard Met | Standard Nearly Met | Standard Not Met |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English Language Arts | 13.6% | 17.1% | 21.0% | 48.3% |
| Math | 9.2% | 16.9% | 20.1% | 53.8% |
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 | 30.7% | 26.1% |
| 2023-24 | 37.4% | 32.1% |
| 2022-23 | 38.0% | 27.5% |
| 2021-22 | 38.3% | 26.0% |
| 2018-19 | 45.1% | 34.7% |
| 2017-18 | 40.3% | 42.3% |
| 2016-17 | 40.8% | 36.1% |
| 2015-16 | 46.0% | 42.0% |
| 2014-15 | 39.0% | 41.0% |
% 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
31.8%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
62.4%
based on CA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-30.7pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 32% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 62% 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 Vargas Elementary
Vargas Elementary's state test result (31.8% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 4 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vargas Elementary this school | 435 | 29.2% | 31.8% |
| Lakewood Elementary Sunnyvale | 372 | 33.6% | 36.4% |
| San Miguel Elementary Sunnyvale | 431 | 31.1% | 39.4% |
| Primary Charter Tracy | 401 | 28.4% | N/A |
| Gladstone Elementary San Dimas | 518 | 34.7% | 64.8% |
| John F. Kennedy Elementary Newark | 455 | 31.0% | 53.0% |
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 Vargas Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In California | In Santa Clara County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 31.8% | #3,298 of 5,151 | #178 of 226 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 26.1% | #3,655 of 5,172 ▼ 780 | #186 of 226 ▼ 16 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 30.7% | #3,919 of 5,172 ▼ 939 | #185 of 226 ▼ 21 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest drop first | -3.8pp | #791 of 5,116 | #68 of 225 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 435 | #3,225 of 5,915 | #118 of 255 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 17.9:1 | #250 of 5,352 | #15 of 247 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 58.9% | #1,938 of 5,354 | #114 of 247 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 29.2% | #4,792 of 5,625 | #143 of 252 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -9.0% | #2,825 of 3,837 | #159 of 189 |
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
435
+9 (+2%) vs 2020
-18% since 2000-01, when it was 528
Student : Teacher
17.9:1
was 21.3:1
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 | 435 | 24.3 | 17.9:1 | 29% (127) |
| 2023-24 | 416 | 21.2 | 19.6:1 | 36% (148) |
| 2022-23 | 411 | 21.2 | 19.4:1 | 36% (150) |
| 2020-21 | 426 | 20 | 21.3:1 | 34% (145) |
| 2017-18 | 478 | 21.2 | 22.6:1 | 53% (253) |
| 2015-16 | 545 | 27 | 20.2:1 | 57% (308) |
| 2010-11 | 572 | N/A | N/A | 74% (426) |
| 2000-01 | 528 | 29 | 18.2:1 | 39% (207) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Vargas Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 9% (478 to 435); teachers up 15% (21.2 to 24.3).
About Vargas Elementary
Vargas Elementary is a public elementary school in Sunnyvale, California. The latest federal count shows 435 students in kindergarten through 5.
The district, Sunnyvale, operates 10 schools serving 5,753 students.
Vargas Elementary is 60% Hispanic by enrollment. Beyond that, enrollment is 20% Asian, 11% White, and 7% multiracial. In Santa Clara County overall, about 25% of residents are Hispanic. Vargas Elementary's diversity index is 59%, against a US figure of 70%.
At Vargas Elementary, 24.3 full-time-equivalent teachers work with students, a ratio of about 17.9:1. That is lower than the 22.3:1 average for elementary schools in California. Roughly 29% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch.
Vargas Elementary is 30.7 points below expectations on state tests, given its student poverty level, placing it in the bottom 10% in California.
Census Bureau estimates for Santa Clara County show that the median household income is $164,281, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 57%, and roughly 4% of residents are in poverty. Vargas Elementary is one of 412 public schools in the county.
Cumberland Elementary is the public school closest to Vargas Elementary, about 1.0 miles away. The count of other public schools within five miles is at least 8. The average proficiency across nearby scored schools is 66.0%; Vargas Elementary's is 31.8%, ranking 9th of 9.
Federal data place Vargas Elementary in the City: Mid-size locale, which means it is inside a principal city with a population between 100,000 and 250,000.
Compared with 2020-21, when it had 426 students, enrollment in 2024-25 was about the same at 435. The number of students per teacher fell from 21.3 to 17.9 over 4 years.
Threads on this page can be about sports tryouts, band and choir, and theater. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.
Santa Clara County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
1,902,047
Census ACS
Median income
$164,281
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
57%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
4%
Below federal line
Schools in county
412
230,059 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Sunnyvale
- Sunnyvale MiddleMiddle · 1,053 students
- Ellis ElementaryElementary · 768 students
- Columbia MiddleMiddle · 697 students
- Cherry Chase ElementaryElementary · 622 students
- Cumberland ElementaryElementary · 586 students
- Bishop ElementaryElementary · 465 students
Other schools in Sunnyvale
- Fremont HighHigh · 2,060 students
- Cupertino MiddleMiddle · 1,067 students
- Sunnyvale MiddleMiddle · 1,053 students
- Louis E. Stocklmeir ElementaryElementary · 840 students
- Ellis ElementaryElementary · 768 students
- Marian A. Peterson MiddleMiddle · 759 students
Nearby schools
- Cumberland Elementary1.0 mi · 586
- Jose Antonio Vargas Elementary1.1 mi · 368
- Cherry Chase Elementary1.1 mi · 622
- Edith Landels Elementary1.3 mi · 399
- Sunnyvale Middle1.4 mi · 1,053
- Bishop Elementary1.4 mi · 465
Frequently asked questions
About Vargas ElementaryHow large is Vargas Elementary?
Vargas Elementary enrolls approximately 435 students in grades KG-05.
What age range does Vargas Elementary serve?
Vargas Elementary serves students from grade KG through grade 05.
How many teachers does Vargas Elementary have?
Vargas Elementary employs 24 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 17.9:1.
What is the student diversity at Vargas Elementary?
Student demographics at Vargas Elementary are roughly 11% White, 60% Hispanic, 1% Black, 20% Asian, 7% Two or more.
Who oversees Vargas Elementary?
Vargas Elementary is overseen by Sunnyvale in Santa Clara County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.