Frederick Joyce Elementary, North Highlands CA

Original Research by School Decision on Frederick Joyce Elementary

Frederick Joyce Elementary serves kindergarten through eighth grade in North Highlands, an unincorporated suburban community in Sacramento County roughly a short drive northeast of downtown Sacramento. The school's setting is the post-WWII residential neighborhood that grew around the former McClellan Air Force Base, now a mixed-use business park. The area is car-oriented, with schools distributed across dispersed suburban campuses rather than concentrated in a walkable center; civic life runs along arterial roads like Watt Avenue.

The enrollment is small for a K-8 building, with a largely working-class student body. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the school serves a diverse population including Latino, Asian, Black, and white students in roughly equal proportions, plus smaller groups of multiracial and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students. Data on special education and English learner enrollment was not available.

Academic performance across the school is below the county median. In reading and language arts, proficiency rates range from the upper twenties to upper thirties across grades three through eight, with sixth grade performing slightly higher. Math proficiency is substantially lower, ranging from the low teens in seventh and eighth grade to the low thirties in third grade, with a dip to the low twenties in the upper elementary grades. Science proficiency is also low, in the teens to low twenties in the grades tested. These results position the school well below the midpoint among Sacramento County's school cohort on overall proficiency. A parent may want to look into further detail with the school about targeted interventions or support structures in place to address these gaps, particularly in mathematics, where proficiency is notably weak across grades.

The school's context is changing. North Highlands is experiencing substantial planned growth, designated a Green Zone for accelerated infill development. The Watt Avenue corridor, which runs through the community, is undergoing major street and transit improvements, including sidewalk and bike-lane upgrades, and is targeted for hundreds of new mixed-income residential units over the coming years. This growth may reshape the student population and resources in the area.

Twin Rivers Unified, the school's parent district, navigated a significant disruption in March 2026 when teachers conducted the district's first-ever strike, lasting about two weeks. The strike resulted in a two-year contract with raises and expanded health benefits, addressing a staffing and retention crisis that the union said was driving instructional instability. That settlement reshapes district finances and may affect classroom continuity going forward. Additionally, the district voters approved two school facilities bond measures in November 2022, authorizing borrowing for modernization of aging school buildings, repaid through new property taxes on district homeowners—a long-term financial commitment families in the area carry.

Housing in the North Highlands zip code is modestly valued relative to the state benchmark, and rent is lower than state averages, making it an affordable neighborhood by regional standards. The cost of homeownership or renting is within reach for working families, though tight at lower income levels.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 335%

School 35% · District 38% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 423%

School 23% · District 32% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Grade 521%

School 21% · District 22% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 628%

School 28% · District 28%

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 715%

School 15% · District 24% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 812%

School 12% · District 20% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 332%

School 32% · District 35% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 430%

School 30% · District 35% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 527%

School 27% · District 36% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 640%

School 40% · District 39% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 727%

School 27% · District 37% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 837%

School 37% · District 35% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Science

Grade 521%

School 21% · District 17% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 815%

School 15% · District 17% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 822%

School 22% · District 35% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

This schoolTwin Rivers Unified, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.