Summary:
Magalia has two K–6 elementary schools in Paradise Unified: Cedarwood Elementary, with 271 students, and Pine Ridge, with 179, for 450 students combined. In 2025–26, their strengths differed by subject, and both schools had higher chronic absenteeism than the district and state. The most important finding is that neither school reached the state proficiency rate in ELA, math, or science.
Pine Ridge stands out in ELA and science, while Cedarwood Elementary leads in math. Pine Ridge’s ELA proficiency was 27%, 5 points above Cedarwood’s 22%; its science rate was 24%, 4 points above Cedarwood’s 20%. Cedarwood’s math rate was 27%, 13 points above Pine Ridge’s 14%, and just 1 point above the district rate. Across both schools, the average trailed the state by 25 points in ELA, 18 in math, and 14 in science. Cedarwood also led Pine Ridge in math in every tested grade, by 23 points in grade 3, 16 in grade 4, 12 in grade 5, and 6 in grade 6.
Recent results show a modest area-wide ELA improvement, but not consistent progress across subjects: the two-school average rose 2 points in ELA and science, while falling 1 point in math. Because state rates rose too, the area’s gap narrowed by 2 points in ELA but widened by 2 in math and 1 in science. School-level trends diverged: Cedarwood’s science rate rose 20 points while Pine Ridge’s fell 15. SchoolDigger gives both schools one star; its latest statewide percentile is 20 for Cedarwood and 12 for Pine Ridge, with Pine Ridge down 6 points from the prior year. As context, in 2024–25, free/reduced lunch eligible students made up 81% at Cedarwood and 83% at Pine Ridge; student-teacher ratios were 21.5 and 14.7, respectively. These figures offer context, not an explanation for the schools’ different results.
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