Summary:
Pleasant Ridge Union Elementary has four schools: two elementary schools, one intermediate school and one alternative school; Arete Charter Academy serves kindergarten through grade 12, while the other schools cover narrower grade spans. In 2025–26, the schools’ average proficiency was 50% in English language arts, 43% in math and 51% in science, compared with state rates of 49%, 38% and 36%. The clearest area-wide strength is science: all four schools were above the state rate, and their average was 15 percentage points higher.
Different schools lead in different subjects. Magnolia Intermediate led in all-grades ELA and science, with 55% and 56% proficient; Cottage Hill Elementary was lowest in those subjects, at 42% in each. In math, Alta Sierra Elementary was highest at 58%, while Arete was lowest at 32%—a 26-point spread. Alta’s math result was 20 points above the other schools’ average; Arete’s was 14 points below the other schools’ average. Arete’s profile is mixed: its all-grades ELA and science results were above state rates, despite its low math result. SchoolDigger ranked Alta at the 76th state percentile, Magnolia at the 71st and Cottage Hill at the 55th in 2025–26.
Across the four schools, average proficiency rose from 2024–25 to 2025–26 by 1 percentage point in ELA, 1 point in math and 14 points in science; individual results varied, with Cottage Hill’s ELA and math and Arete’s math dipping. SchoolDigger’s longer-term rankings also diverged: Alta moved up 4 percentile points and Magnolia 3, while Cottage Hill fell 8 between 2023–24 and 2025–26. All four reported free/reduced lunch eligible shares for 2024–25, ranging from 32% at Magnolia to 35% at Cottage Hill. Student–teacher ratios ranged from 21.6 at Magnolia to 24.1 at Alta, with no simple match to test results. Because grade spans differ, all-grades results are not direct like-for-like comparisons; for example, Alta led the elementary schools in fourth- and fifth-grade math.
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