Summary
Pacific Union Elementary is a K–8 school serving 328 students in Fresno, California. Its clearest academic concern is the sharp divide between stronger results in some grades and very weak outcomes in fourth and fifth grade: third-grade ELA and math proficiency were 50% and 52%, while fourth-grade ELA was 15%, and fifth-grade ELA, math, and science were 11%, 4%, and 11%. The biggest concern in the data is therefore the particularly low fourth- and fifth-grade performance, which all-grade averages can obscure.
Compared with California, the school’s 2025–2026 all-grade proficiency was lower in ELA (37% versus 49%), math (34% versus 38%), and science (19% versus 36%); its reported district results matched the school’s in all three subjects. Among six nearby K–8 schools, it ranked lowest in ELA, third-highest in math, and fourth-highest in science. Math is a relative bright spot: seventh- and eighth-grade proficiency was above state levels, at 41% and 43%, respectively. Results are not uniformly low, but the fifth-grade scores were the lowest among nearby schools with reported results for those grades and subjects.
Results have weakened overall since 2022–2023: ELA fell from 43% to 37%, math from 37% to 34%, and science from 25% to 19%. SchoolDigger’s overall ranking also declined, from the 45th percentile in 2023–2024 to the 33rd in 2025–2026; it gave the school 2 stars, and its percentile was the second-lowest among nearby schools with rankings. Context includes a student-teacher ratio of 17.2 in 2024–2025, below the roughly 20 students per teacher at the other nearby schools, and 90% free/reduced lunch eligible in 2024–2025. SchoolDigger’s subgroup rankings point to a notable strength in how well the school serves English Language Learner Students: the group ranked at the 84th statewide percentile in 2023–2024, compared with the school’s overall 45th percentile that year. By contrast, the Male Students ranking fell from the 47th percentile in 2023–2024 to the 22nd in 2025–2026.
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