Norton Science and Language Academy, San Bernardino CA

Original Research by School Decision on Norton Science and Language Academy

Norton Science and Language Academy is a charter school serving kindergarten through grade 11 in San Bernardino, located on a modern 18-acre campus that opened in 2021. The school operates as its own single-school district and has grown from a TK-8 program into a school spanning nearly the full grade band, with ninth grade added in 2021 and a pathway through grade 12 completed by 2024. This expansion means families can now keep children at the school through high school.

The enrollment is roughly mid-sized for its grade band, with the majority of students drawn from families with substantial need. About three-quarters of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with smaller populations of Black, Asian, and white students; the school does not currently report data on the rate of English learners or students with IEPs, so a parent may want to look into the school directly regarding those populations.

Academically, Norton's state test results show low proficiency across tested subjects and grades. In English Language Arts, performance is uneven: proficiency runs in the low twenties in grades 3 through 5, rises to the mid-to-high thirties in grade 6, then reaches roughly the mid-to-high forties in grades 7 and 8. In mathematics, proficiency ranges from the mid-teens to the low thirties across all tested grades, with no consistent pattern by level. Science proficiency at grade 5 sits at about the mid-teens, while grade 8 science reaches into the mid-twenties. Overall proficiency across tested subjects sits below the midpoint when compared against other districts in San Bernardino County.

The school's name and brand center on science and language. The district brief publicly reported that the secondary program, as it builds out, includes courses in Spanish, Mandarin, American Sign Language, and coding, and that the facility features a media center connected to NASA missions. The school sits in San Bernardino proper, in an area with mixed residential and commercial character, where retail and development activity is underway in several districts of the city. The housing market in the immediate zip code shows modest home values and rental prices substantially below the state benchmark.

The school is open and actively serving students, but no graduation rate is available because the school only recently built to grade 11. State testing data for high school grades is not provided in the current data, so families with high schoolers may want to contact the school for information on ninth and tenth grade outcomes and on planned course offerings as the twelfth grade cohort completes. A parent considering this school should seek direct conversation with the school about its English learner and special education services, recent grade distributions in grades 9 and 10, and the academic support model, given the proficiency numbers across the grade band.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 327%

School 27% · district not reported

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

Grade 430%

School 30% · district not reported

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 516%

School 16% · district not reported

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

Grade 628%

School 28% · district not reported

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 719%

School 19% · district not reported

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

Grade 828%

School 28% · district not reported

even with state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 321%

School 21% · district not reported

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

Grade 431%

School 31% · district not reported

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

Grade 529%

School 29% · district not reported

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

Grade 636%

School 36% · district not reported

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 750%

School 50% · district not reported

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 853%

School 53% · district not reported

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 17 pts above county median

Science

Grade 517%

School 17% · district not reported

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 826%

School 26% · district not reported

even with state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

This schoolDistrict average, 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 3Lower-income18%Higher-income29%11 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income25%Higher-income48%23 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income23%Higher-income50%27 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income34%Higher-income50%16 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income46%Higher-income71%24 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income51%Higher-income69%19 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income19%Higher-income45%26 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income24%Higher-income48%24 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income10%Higher-income36%26 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income26%Higher-income44%18 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income16%Higher-income35%19 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income24%Higher-income54%30 pp gap