Summary
Rail Ranch Elementary in Murrieta, California, serves 603 students in kindergarten through grade 5 in an area with several nearby elementary schools for comparison. In 2025–2026, its proficiency rates were below state and district rates in English language arts (ELA), math and science. The central concern is its low standing among nearby schools: it ranked second-lowest in ELA and math and third-lowest in science.
Science is Rail Ranch’s strongest subject compared with nearby schools, while math is its biggest gap. The school’s proficiency rates were 44% in ELA, 34% in math and 35% in science, compared with nearby-school averages of 57%, 53% and 40%—gaps of 14, 18 and 5 percentage points, respectively. Science was also closest to the state rate: Rail Ranch was 1 point below the state in science, compared with 4 points below in math and 6 below in ELA. Against Murrieta Valley Unified, the gaps were wider: 14 points in science, 15 in math and 20 in ELA. These comparisons make science a relative strength, even though Rail Ranch remains below the state and district in every tested subject.
Results over time are mixed: from 2022–2023 to 2025–2026, ELA fell 1 point and math fell 4, while science rose 3; state rates rose faster in all three subjects. The latest year brought sharper declines—7 points in ELA, 9 in math and 8 in science. SchoolDigger gave Rail Ranch the 48th statewide percentile and 2 stars in 2025–2026, down 16 percentile points from the prior year; only one nearby school ranked lower. Other context includes a student-teacher ratio of 25.6 in 2024–2025, the third-highest among the nearby schools, and a free/reduced lunch eligible rate of 64% that year, the second-highest among nearby schools with comparable data. SchoolDigger’s group rankings differ from its overall standing: its estimate for how well the school serves Special Education Students was at the 68th percentile, versus 48th overall, while its estimate for White Students was at the 12th percentile.
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