Summary:
Zip code 92071 has nine elementary schools in Santee: eight conventional schools with usable all-grades scores and Santee Alternative; the scored schools serve K–8 except Sycamore Canyon Elementary, which serves K–6, and Santee Alternative’s science results are suppressed. Across the eight scored schools, average proficiency is 61% in ELA, 51% in math and 45% in science, compared with state rates of 49%, 38% and 36%. All eight exceed the state in ELA and science, and seven do in math, but the school-to-school ranges are 25 points in ELA, 20 in math and 13 in science. The clearest overall message is that area averages are above state levels, but they conceal substantial differences between schools.
Sycamore Canyon Elementary is the ELA standout at 74%, 10 points above the next-highest school, PRIDE Academy at Prospect Avenue, at 64%; Carlton Hills Elementary narrowly leads math, with 57.9% compared with Sycamore’s 57.7%. Carlton Oaks Elementary leads science at 52%, 2 points ahead of Rio Seco Elementary. At the lower end, Cajon Park Elementary has the lowest ELA and math rates, 50% and 38%; its ELA is about level with the state, while its math is 1 point below. Chet F. Harritt Elementary is lowest in science at 39%, still 3 points above the state.
Recent changes vary by school: the eight-school average was up about 1 point in ELA, down about 1 in math and essentially flat in science, while state science rose 3 points. Carlton Oaks improved in all three subjects—4 points in ELA, 4 in math and 7 in science—whereas Sycamore gained 10 points in ELA but fell 5 points in both math and science. SchoolDigger places Sycamore at the 83rd percentile and Carlton Oaks at the 82nd; Cajon Park is at the 48th percentile. Enrollment and income measures do not neatly track scores: conventional-school ratios range from 20.7 students per teacher at Sycamore to 25.4 at Chet F. Harritt, and the reported free/reduced lunch eligible measure for 2024–25 ranges from 37% at Sycamore to 58% at PRIDE.
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