Peres Elementary

Peres Elementary is a K-8 public school serving 538 students in Richmond, California, within the West Contra Costa Unified school district, which faces significant academic challenges across the area.

Academically, Peres is ranked in the bottom 1% of all California schools, with only about 8% of students proficient in English and Math, and science scores are critically low. Chronic absenteeism, at 38%, is nearly double the state average and contributes to these struggles. While the school spends more per student ($6,904) than most nearby district schools like Cesar E. Chavez Elementary or Lincoln Elementary, it has the lowest test scores among them. However, there are bright spots: African American student scores have recently shown dramatic improvement, and third-grade math scores are notably higher than other grades.

The local context reveals that while most schools in the district perform poorly, Nystrom Elementary achieves better results. A stark contrast exists with the nearby charter school, Richmond College Preparatory, which ranks in the top third of the state with much higher proficiency and lower absenteeism, despite operating with larger class sizes but significantly higher per-student funding. This suggests that different educational models and resource use can lead to different outcomes even in the same community.