Summary:
Planada, California, has two schools serving kindergarten through eighth grade: Planada Elementary (K–5, 583 students) and Cesar E. Chavez Middle (grades 6–8, 305 students), for 888 students in all. In 2025–26, both schools were below California’s all-grades results in ELA, math and science; because the schools serve different grades, these schoolwide figures are not comparisons of the same grade levels. Math is the broadest challenge: the schools’ equal-weighted average was 27% proficient, 11 points below the state. The most important area-wide finding is that both schools trail the state across all three subjects, but Cesar E. Chavez Middle is closer in every subject.
Cesar E. Chavez Middle leads the two schools on 2025–26 all-grades results: 46% in ELA, 31% in math and 34% in science, compared with 36%, 23% and 26% at Planada Elementary—advantages of 10, 8 and 8 points. There are stronger and weaker grade-level exceptions: eighth graders at Cesar E. Chavez Middle were 4 points above the state in ELA and 1 point above in math, while fifth-grade math at Planada Elementary was 9% proficient, 28 points below the state. SchoolDigger rates the middle school at the 53rd percentile with 3 stars and the elementary school at the 29th percentile with 1 star.
Recent score trends also separate the schools: from 2024–25 to 2025–26, Planada Elementary declined by 1 point in ELA, 4 in math and 3 in science, while Cesar E. Chavez Middle gained 1, 6 and 4 points, respectively. In 2024–25, the middle school also had a lower student-teacher ratio (17.4:1 versus 20.8:1) and higher spending per student ($22,091 versus $17,725). Both reported a similar share of students eligible for free/reduced lunch that year: 90% at the elementary school and 90% at the middle school. These are contextual differences, not explanations for score results.
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