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Alturas Elementary

Public Grades K-5
4667th
SchoolDigger Rank ?
of 5,804 California Elementary Schools
Better than 20% of California elementary schools
Summary

Alturas Elementary serves 333 students in kindergarten through grade 5 in Alturas, a small community in northeastern California. In 2025–26, chronic absenteeism was just 5.8%, below the district’s 12.1% and California’s 18.3%. The central concern is that proficiency remained below state averages in all three tested subjects: English language arts (ELA), math and science.

Compared with the district, the school was stronger in math and science but weaker in ELA: proficiency was 24% in math and 23% in science, versus 19% and 20% districtwide, while ELA was 26% versus 30%. Statewide rates were 38% in math, 36% in science and 49% in ELA, leaving gaps of 15, 13 and 23 percentage points, respectively. In fourth grade, Surprise Valley Elementary had 42% proficiency in both ELA and math, compared with 32% and 26% at Alturas. Because Surprise Valley serves kindergarten through grade 7 while Alturas serves kindergarten through grade 5, their all-grade results are not fully comparable.

Over four years, Alturas’s proficiency rose by 3 percentage points in ELA, 2 in math and 8 in science, though science scores peaked in 2023–24 before falling. SchoolDigger placed Alturas in the 20th statewide percentile with 1 star in 2025–26, down from the 32nd percentile and 2 stars the prior year. Its statewide ranking for how well it serves Special Education Students was especially low, at the 4th percentile; its ranking for Hispanic Students improved from the 9th to the 28th percentile. In 2024–25, 73% of Alturas students were eligible for free/reduced lunch, compared with 69% at Surprise Valley. Alturas’s student-teacher ratio was 16.6 in 2024–25, versus 12 at Surprise Valley.

333
Students ?
16.6
Student/teacher ratio ?
$19,688
Per pupil spending ?
73.0%
Free/reduced lunch eligible (2024-25) ?
All students in California receive free school meals.
 809 West Eighth St.
       Alturas, CA  96101-3116

(530) 233-7201

District: Modoc Joint Unified


Students who attend Alturas Elementary usually attend:

Middle:    Modoc Middle
High:    Modoc High
Racial breakdown:

White:
61.6%
Hispanic:
22.8%
Two or more races:
8.7%
more
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At a glance
▼ Ranking trend: Declining — 40th percentile in 2016 → 20th in 2026
Worth a look
!Test scores below the California average (25% vs 42% meeting standards)
!In the lower quartile statewide (20th percentile)
!Ranking has slipped — down 20 percentile points since 2016
Students meeting standards (2025-2026) ?
This school25%
District avg23%
California avg42%
4,667th of 5,804
California public elementary schools ?
Bottom 20%▼ down 20 pts since 2016
From bottom 40% (2016) to bottom 20% (2026)
See the entire ranking list of California Elementary Schools →
★★★★★
SchoolDigger rating ?
Statewide rank percentile over time (100 = the top-ranked school in the state; click a legend item to add a student group)
Show full rank history (all student groups)

All Students

YearAvg scoreStatewide rankCalifornia percentileRating
202621.64667 of 580419.6%★☆☆☆☆
202529.93967 of 585732.3%★★☆☆☆
202430.93866 of 586934.1%★★☆☆☆
202320.14837 of 585917.4%★☆☆☆☆
202228.93957 of 588332.7%★★☆☆☆
202135.5857 of 141739.5%★★☆☆☆
201919.44857 of 578916.1%★☆☆☆☆
201814.75125 of 56629.5%☆☆☆☆☆
201719.84714 of 569217.2%★☆☆☆☆
201635.43382 of 561439.8%★★☆☆☆
201542.42892 of 561148.5%★★☆☆☆
201326.64305 of 553022.2%★☆☆☆☆
201242.33122 of 539042.1%★★☆☆☆
201140.73196 of 537740.6%★★☆☆☆
201040.73128 of 531441.1%★★☆☆☆
200954.72208 of 519357.5%★★★☆☆
200849.52394 of 511353.2%★★★☆☆
200751.82217 of 511356.6%★★★☆☆
200659.41765 of 481863.4%★★★☆☆
200547.72314 of 482252.0%★★★☆☆
200438.12739 of 480943.0%★★☆☆☆

Disabled

YearAvg scoreStatewide rankCalifornia percentileRating
202218.72063 of 22277.4%☆☆☆☆☆

Female

YearAvg scoreStatewide rankCalifornia percentileRating
202624.54285 of 556923.1%★☆☆☆☆
202540.63046 of 559745.6%★★☆☆☆
202434.93418 of 561239.1%★★☆☆☆
202322.34488 of 560920.0%★☆☆☆☆
202232.73517 of 563537.6%★★☆☆☆
202140.4691 of 126745.5%★★☆☆☆
201921.74491 of 549218.2%★☆☆☆☆
201820.34506 of 541316.8%★☆☆☆☆

Hispanic

YearAvg scoreStatewide rankCalifornia percentileRating
202630.83662 of 508528.0%★☆☆☆☆
202516.84654 of 51078.9%☆☆☆☆☆
202425.84047 of 510720.8%★☆☆☆☆
202334.53349 of 508734.2%★★☆☆☆
201935.03315 of 496333.2%★★☆☆☆

Low Socio Economic Status

YearAvg scoreStatewide rankCalifornia percentileRating
202619.04751 of 541212.2%★☆☆☆☆
202532.83766 of 546031.0%★★☆☆☆
202425.44340 of 551721.3%★☆☆☆☆
202318.04831 of 53639.9%☆☆☆☆☆
202230.63783 of 526428.1%★☆☆☆☆
202147.9507 of 111054.3%★★★☆☆
201924.74247 of 517317.9%★☆☆☆☆
201815.44730 of 50847.0%☆☆☆☆☆

Male

YearAvg scoreStatewide rankCalifornia percentileRating
202622.94451 of 559020.4%★☆☆☆☆
202521.64588 of 562818.5%★☆☆☆☆
202427.94012 of 564328.9%★☆☆☆☆
202318.94815 of 563814.6%★☆☆☆☆
202226.54091 of 566327.8%★☆☆☆☆
202130.8824 of 127235.2%★★☆☆☆
201918.34799 of 551012.9%★☆☆☆☆
201811.85171 of 54314.8%☆☆☆☆☆

Special Education

YearAvg scoreStatewide rankCalifornia percentileRating
202616.72803 of 29204.0%☆☆☆☆☆

White

YearAvg scoreStatewide rankCalifornia percentileRating
202610.72334 of 25327.8%☆☆☆☆☆
202513.42322 of 259810.6%★☆☆☆☆
202414.02355 of 265111.2%★☆☆☆☆
20235.92560 of 26613.8%☆☆☆☆☆
202210.02528 of 27267.3%☆☆☆☆☆
20195.32749 of 28343.0%☆☆☆☆☆
20182.92713 of 27370.9%☆☆☆☆☆
How student groups rank statewide ? (each group's percentile vs the same group at other schools — higher is better; the +/- beside each compares the group with this school's overall percentile)
Hispanic (2026)28th percentile+8 vs school
Female (2026)23rd percentile+3 vs school
Male (2026)20th percentile~ school
Low Socio Economic Status (2026)12th percentile-7 vs school
White (2026)8th percentile-12 vs school
Disabled (2022)7th percentile-25 vs school
Special Education (2026)4th percentile-16 vs school
By subject vs California (2025-2026) ?
English Language Arts/Literacy26%-23 vs state
Mathematics24%-15 vs state
Science23%-13 vs state

★
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Frequently Asked Questions about Alturas Elementary

Students at Alturas Elementary are 62% White, 23% Hispanic, 9% Two or more races, 6% American Indian.

In the 2024-25 school year, 333 students attended Alturas Elementary.

Alturas Elementary ranks in the bottom 19.6% of California elementary schools.

Students who attend Alturas Elementary usually go on to attend:

Middle : Modoc Middle
High : Modoc High

Rate Alturas Elementary!



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Schools in Alturas, CA

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Latest California data All new data »
2025–26 attendance data, dropout rates & graduation ratesNewOct 15, 2026
2025–26 CAST, CSA Spanish & Smarter Balanced Assessments scoresNewOct 15, 2026
2024–25 school spending dataJul 1, 2026
2024–25 attendance dataMar 13, 2026


SchoolDigger data sources: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Census Bureau and the California Department of Education.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMERS: Not all boundaries are included. We make every effort to ensure that boundaries are up-to-date. But it's important to note that these are approximations and are for general informational purposes only. To verify legal descriptions of boundaries or school locations, contact your local tax assessor's office and/or school district.

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