Summary
Sycamore Elementary serves 357 students in kindergarten through sixth grade in Orange, within the Orange Unified area; it is the second-smallest of the 11 nearby schools. In 2025–2026, its English language arts (ELA), math and science proficiency rates were all below state and district results, although ELA and math compared favorably with nearby schools. Science is the clearest concern: only 18% were proficient, below the state’s 36%, the district’s 47% and the nearby-school average of 28%.
Sycamore’s strongest local results were in ELA and math: it ranked third among the 11 schools in both subjects, with 44% proficient in ELA and 31% in math. Those rates were 7 and 5 percentage points above nearby averages, respectively, but still 5 and 7 points below state results and 15 and 16 points below district results. Science was ninth among the 11 schools; Sycamore’s 18% was higher than only two nearby schools. Chronic absenteeism is another concern: 25% of students were chronically absent in 2025–2026, 6 points above the state and 10 above the district.
Results over time are mixed to negative: from 2022–2023 to 2025–2026, ELA edged up from 43% to 44%, while math fell from 37% to 31% and science from 24% to 18%. As state results improved, Sycamore’s gaps widened by 2 points in ELA, 9 in math and 12 in science. SchoolDigger placed the school at the 44th statewide percentile with 2 stars in 2025–2026, down 13 percentile points from its 2023–2024 high. Its student-teacher ratio was 22.5 in 2024–2025, among the lower nearby ratios. That year, 89% of students were free/reduced lunch eligible, the highest reported nearby share. SchoolDigger’s statewide ranking for Hispanic students was at the 59th percentile, above the school’s overall 44th, and its ranking for English Language Learner students reached the 72nd percentile in 2023–2024, up from the 49th percentile the year before; these rankings indicate how well the school serves those groups.
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