Voices College-bound Language Academy at Mt. Pleasant, San Jose CA

Original Research by School Decision on Voices College-bound Language Academy at Mt. Pleasant

Voices College-Bound Language Academy at Mt. Pleasant is a small charter school on Story Road in San Jose's east side, serving kindergarten through eighth grade. Its defining characteristic is a Spanish-English dual-immersion program: instruction begins heavily weighted toward Spanish in the early grades, then shifts incrementally each year until reaching a roughly equal split by third grade. The intent, publicly reported by the school, is for every student to graduate bilingual and biliterate in both languages. That model is the primary reason a family would choose this school, and it shapes everything from classroom composition to daily instruction.

The student body is nearly entirely Hispanic, and a substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Enrollment data on English learners and students with IEPs was not available in what we reviewed. The school is small, even relative to what you would expect for a K-8 campus of its size.

On academic performance, the picture is a difficult one. California's CAASPP state assessments show proficiency rates across all tested grades that are quite low, both in English language arts and in mathematics. The pattern holds from third grade through eighth, with the middle school grades generally showing the weakest results. Science scores, tested at fifth and eighth grade, are similarly very low. When placed against other districts in Santa Clara County, the school's overall proficiency index falls in the bottom quartile of that group. These are facts worth sitting with. A parent considering this school should ask the school directly how it explains the gap between its college-bound mission and current test outcomes, and what interventions are in place for students who are not yet meeting grade-level standards. Multi-year trend data was not available because only one year of comparable test results appears in what we received, so it is not possible to say whether results are improving.

There is also an active institutional question to be aware of. The school's charter, authorized by the Santa Clara County Board of Education, ran through June 2025, and publicly reported information indicates the county board was engaged in a renewal process during the 2024-25 school year. California law requires chartering authorities to weigh academic performance categories when deciding on renewals. Whether and on what terms the school has been renewed is something any prospective family should confirm directly with the school before enrolling.

The neighborhood sits in east San Jose, away from the walkable downtown core and the character-rich districts like Willow Glen or Japantown. The surrounding zip code carries home values well above the California statewide median and considerably above the national figure, though values have edged slightly lower in the past year. Rents in the area are high by most national comparisons and have been roughly flat recently. San Jose's broader job market is anchored by the tech industry, with firms like Cisco, Apple, and Google among the region's largest employers, and the city is actively adding density downtown through new residential towers and Google's long-planned Diridon Station development, though that project has faced delays.

No program offerings beyond the dual-immersion model were available in the data we reviewed. Graduation rate data does not apply here because the school ends at eighth grade. Chronic absenteeism data was not reported. The school's Title I designation was listed as not available in the sources we used, though a publicly reported profile describes it as a schoolwide Title I school, and families may want to verify that directly.

The school fits a family that is committed to raising children fluent in both Spanish and English and who see that linguistic outcome as worth navigating around the school's current academic performance gaps. It is not the right fit for a family prioritizing high state test scores or seeking a school with a long, stable track record, particularly while a charter renewal question remains open.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 329%

School 29% · district not reported

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 28 pts below county median

Grade 417%

School 17% · district not reported

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 37 pts below county median

Grade 519%

School 19% · district not reported

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 28 pts below county median

Grade 67%

School 7% · district not reported

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 39 pts below county median

Grade 715%

School 15% · district not reported

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 30 pts below county median

Grade 88%

School 8% · district not reported

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 31 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 324%

School 24% · district not reported

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 29 pts below county median

Grade 430%

School 30% · district not reported

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 26 pts below county median

Grade 524%

School 24% · district not reported

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 34 pts below county median

Grade 621%

School 21% · district not reported

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 37 pts below county median

Grade 75%

School 5% · district not reported

▼ 40 pts below state median · ▼ 51 pts below county median

Grade 84%

School 4% · district not reported

▼ 40 pts below state median · ▼ 50 pts below county median

Science

Grade 55%

School 5% · district not reported

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 38 pts below county median

Grade 80%

School 0% · district not reported

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 37 pts below 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.