Summary:
The city of Joshua Tree, California is served by two public elementary schools, Friendly Hills Elementary and Joshua Tree Elementary, both part of the Morongo Unified School District and educating students in grades K-6.
When comparing the two schools, Friendly Hills Elementary stands out as the higher-performing school, with student test scores in English and math that are significantly above both the district and state averages. It has earned a 4-star rating and is ranked in the top 25% of all California schools. In contrast, Joshua Tree Elementary has proficiency rates below state averages and is ranked in the bottom 25% of schools statewide, though both schools face similar challenges with science scores.
A key difference between the schools is the rate of chronic student absenteeism, which is much lower at Friendly Hills (17.5%) than at Joshua Tree (38.9%). Both schools have comparable class sizes and per-student funding within the Morongo Unified district, which is itself ranked in the bottom 30% in the state, making Friendly Hills' strong and improving academic results particularly notable for families in the area.
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