Summary:
Empire Union Elementary has six schools serving 2,794 students: five elementary schools for kindergarten through grade six and one middle school serving grades five through eight. In 2025–26, the six-school averages were 36% proficient in ELA, 23% in math, and 22% in science, compared with statewide results of 49%, 38%, and 36%. ELA is the area’s relative strength, but the average in every subject remains below the state result.
The leaders vary by subject: Norman N. Glick Middle had the highest all-grades ELA result at 49%, while Christine Sipherd Elementary led elementary schools in ELA at 45% and led the group in math and science at 34% and 32%. Norman’s ELA was about 1 percentage point below the state; Christine’s math and science were 5 and 4 points below. At the other end, Empire Elementary had the lowest results in all three subjects—25% in ELA, 16% in math, and 13% in science—and was 33 points chronically absent. Grade-level results also offer a different view: Capistrano Elementary fourth-graders were close to state results in ELA and math, while its sixth-grade math result was 8%, compared with 42% in fourth grade.
Recent changes were mixed: from 2024–25 to 2025–26, the group’s average rose by 1 point in ELA and 4 in science, but fell by 2 in math; the math gap to the state widened by 3 points. SchoolDigger’s 2024–25 statewide percentile rankings ranged from the 11th percentile at Empire to the 49th at Christine. Other school context does not make a simple score ranking: Christine and Bernard L. Hughes Elementary each had 82% free/reduced lunch eligible in 2024–25, yet Christine’s results were higher by 10 points in ELA, 11 in math, and 18 in science. Ratios were 24.0 students per teacher at Christine and 26.7 at Hughes. These are contextual differences, not explanations for test results; the figures combine different grade spans, and Alice N. Stroud Elementary had the group’s lowest chronic absenteeism at 16%, below the state’s 18%.
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