Summary
Cole Canyon Elementary is a K–5 school in Murrieta, California, serving 1,038 students in Murrieta Valley Unified. It stands out among nearby schools for strong results across subjects, though its fifth-grade math results are lower than its earlier tested grades. The most important finding for families is that Cole Canyon leads nearby K–5 schools in ELA and math, while placing a close second in science.
In 2025–2026, 69% of students were proficient in ELA, 67% in math and 49% in science. Those results were 19, 28 and 13 percentage points above state results, and 6, 17 and 1 point above district results, respectively. Cole Canyon also outscored the average of nearby K–5 schools with results that year: 45% in ELA, 41% in math and 29% in science. Antelope Hills Elementary narrowly led science, with 50% proficient. Within Cole Canyon, fifth-grade math is the clearest weak spot: proficiency was 56%, compared with 72% in third grade and 71% in fourth. Even so, fifth-grade math remained 19 points above the state and 8 above the district.
Results are still strong, but have eased from recent peaks: since 2023–2024, ELA has fallen 7 points, math 4 points and science 10 points. Chronic absenteeism is a bright spot, dropping from 29% in 2021–2022 to 9% in 2025–2026, below both the district and state rates of about 18%. SchoolDigger ranked Cole Canyon 828th of 5,804 California schools in 2025–2026, at the 86th percentile with four stars; its 2024–2025 student-teacher ratio was 25.9, the highest among nearby K–5 schools. In 2024–2025, 35% of students were free/reduced lunch eligible. SchoolDigger’s relative measure of how well the school serves Multi-racial Students placed the group at the 50th percentile in 2025–2026, down from the 69th percentile the prior year. Its latest English Language Learner ranking was at the 45th percentile in 2023–2024, compared with the school’s 89th-percentile overall ranking that year.
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