Westside Elementary, Rio Linda CA

Original Research by School Decision on Westside Elementary

Westside Elementary sits on West Second Street in Rio Linda, a semi-rural unincorporated community in Sacramento County. The neighborhood has the character of a slower-paced bedroom community, with large lots, mature trees, and ranch-style homes. Most families commute to Sacramento or to the McClellan Park business complex nearby, a redeveloped former Air Force base that draws aviation firms and government agencies. Rio Linda itself has few walkable amenities, and a car is essential for nearly everything. Parks, a public library branch, a recreation center, and the Dry Creek trail system for hiking and horseback riding round out the community's civic life.

The school serves kindergarten through sixth grade as a regular public school within Twin Rivers Unified. Enrollment is typical in size for a school of that grade span. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, meaning economic need is a defining feature of this student community. The student body is racially and ethnically mixed, with Hispanic and white students each making up substantial shares, and multiracial and Asian students also represented. Data on English learner enrollment and students with IEPs was not available in the records reviewed.

On the California state assessments, proficiency in both English language arts and math is below the midpoint across tested grades. In ELA, third graders perform better than older students, with proficiency declining notably by sixth grade. Math follows a similar pattern, with each successive grade showing lower proficiency than the one before, and sixth-grade math proficiency reaching its lowest point across the tested span. Science proficiency at the fifth-grade level is also below the midpoint. These figures sit slightly above the median among districts in Sacramento County by the overall proficiency index, which places the school in the top quartile of that comparison set, though the underlying rates themselves reflect meaningful gaps from grade-level standard that parents may want to discuss directly with school staff. Only one year of data was available, so trend direction cannot be assessed.

Placed against other districts in Sacramento County, Westside's overall proficiency index lands in the top quartile of the schools in that comparison set, which is worth noting given the school's economic context. Graduation rate is not applicable here because the school ends at sixth grade. Chronic absenteeism data was not available.

The parent district, Twin Rivers Unified, has been through notable turbulence. Voters approved two facilities bond measures in late 2022, authorizing substantial borrowing to modernize aging school buildings, funded through a long-term property tax on district homeowners. More recently, in early 2026, the district experienced its first-ever teacher strike, which lasted nearly two weeks and significantly disrupted classroom instruction. The resulting two-year contract included pay raises and expanded health benefits, settling what the union described as a staffing and retention crisis. Families weighing enrollment at Westside should ask the school what staffing stability has looked like at that campus specifically.

On the housing side, Rio Linda's home values run well below the California state benchmark, making the area more accessible than much of the Sacramento metro, though values have edged slightly lower year over year in the most recent period. The area is also in the middle of a longer-term growth story: large master-planned developments are planned or approved at Rio Linda's edges and in adjacent Elverta, with thousands of new homes expected over time. That growth is actively debated locally, with some residents concerned about the loss of the community's rural feel.

Program offerings specific to Westside Elementary were not available in the data reviewed, so we left that out rather than guess.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 344%

School 44% · District 38% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 439%

School 39% · District 32% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 531%

School 31% · District 22% · ▲ 9 pts above district

even with state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 623%

School 23% · District 28% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 350%

School 50% · District 35% · ▲ 15 pts above district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Grade 443%

School 43% · District 35% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 539%

School 39% · District 36% · ▲ 3 pts above district

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

Grade 632%

School 32% · District 39% · ▼ 7 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 525%

School 25% · District 17% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▼ 3 pts below state median · even with 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 4Lower-income42%Higher-income46%5 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income32%Higher-income67%35 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income37%Higher-income46%10 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income30%Higher-income33%4 pp gap