Summary
Lairon College Preparatory Academy is a K–6 school in San Jose serving 253 students in the Franklin-McKinley Elementary district. Its most recent test results are its clearest concern: in 2025–26, students were proficient at rates of 15% in English language arts (ELA), 8% in math and 3% in science. In all three subjects, Lairon had the lowest results among the seven nearby schools with scores for that year, and its results were also well below state and district rates.
Lairon’s strongest comparison is its student-teacher ratio: 19.8 students per teacher in 2024–25, lower than nine of 10 nearby schools with data, whose average was 21.6. But this has not translated into stronger test results. Lairon’s ELA, math and science proficiency rates were about 34, 31 and 33 percentage points below California’s rates, and about 20, 22 and 21 points below district rates, respectively. Results were especially weak in some grade-level comparisons: 5th-grade ELA proficiency was 7%, the lowest among nearby schools serving that grade, while Lairon had the lowest nearby-school math result in each tested grade. Chronic absenteeism was another concern: 32% in 2025–26, compared with 18% in the district and 18% statewide; only Parkview Elementary was higher among nearby schools with data.
Results and rankings have weakened over time. From 2022–23 to 2025–26, ELA proficiency fell from 21% to 15%, math remained around 8%, and science dropped from 7% to 3%; meanwhile, state results rose in all three subjects. SchoolDigger rated Lairon 0 stars and placed it at the 2nd statewide percentile in 2025–26, down from the 11th percentile in 2023–24. Its Special Education Students ranking also fell sharply, from the 33rd percentile in 2023–24 to the 1st in 2025–26, compared with Lairon’s overall 2nd-percentile ranking. As context, 82% of students were free/reduced lunch eligible in 2024–25, the second-highest share among 11 nearby schools with the same measure and year; this is an observation, not an explanation for the results.
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