Community Outreach Academy, Mcclellan CA

Original Research by School Decision on Community Outreach Academy

Community Outreach Academy is a charter school serving kindergarten through eighth grade in McClellan, a repurposed military-base business park northeast of Sacramento. The school enrolls a substantially smaller middle grades population than its elementary grades, with the eighth grade being particularly small. The student body is overwhelmingly white, with a large majority qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch.

The school's test results in math and English language arts are notably low. On the most recent assessments, proficiency across tested grades in math ranged from the mid-twenties to low forties, with the highest result in fourth grade and declining proficiency in the middle grades. English language arts proficiency was similarly distributed, generally in the mid-thirties to low forties, with the strongest showing in fourth grade. Science proficiency, measured in fifth and eighth grade, was in the low-to-mid twenties. Across all tested subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency index places it below the midpoint among districts in Sacramento County. A parent may want to discuss with the school what academic support structures are in place, what the school sees as drivers of these results, and what instructional changes are underway.

The school operates as a single-school district under the umbrella of Gateway Community Charters, an operator that has embedded the school in a Community Schools Program aligned with California's state Community Schools Partnership Program. That program brings integrated student supports—health and mental health services, counseling, mentoring, after-school offerings, and structured family and community engagement—directly to the school site. This whole-child support infrastructure represents a formalized expansion beyond traditional academic instruction, intended to address barriers to learning and build family involvement. The operator has also adopted a "Portrait of a GCC Graduate" framework that guides curriculum and instruction around competencies including critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication.

McClellan itself is an unusual setting. Once a military base, it is now a mixed-use business park dominated by aviation, logistics, government agencies, and corporate tenants rather than a traditional residential community. The everyday environment mixes modern industrial architecture with historic military buildings. The small resident population lives mostly in converted base housing and newer apartment complexes. Public transit is available via a regional bus line connecting to light rail, but the place is car-dependent, and walkability is limited. There is no downtown center; civic functions are woven into the business park itself. This context shapes the school's daily reality: it serves a largely immigrant community, predominantly Slavic according to publicly reported information, housed in the residential pockets of a working commercial campus.

Graduation rate data do not apply to this school, as it serves only through eighth grade. No data were available on chronic absenteeism, special education enrollment, or English learner enrollment, so a parent should ask the school directly about those populations and supports.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 338%

School 38% · district not reported

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

Grade 441%

School 41% · district not reported

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 531%

School 31% · district not reported

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

Grade 632%

School 32% · district not reported

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

Grade 728%

School 28% · district not reported

▼ 2 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 825%

School 25% · district not reported

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

English language arts

Grade 333%

School 33% · district not reported

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

Grade 442%

School 42% · district not reported

even with state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 537%

School 37% · district not reported

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

Grade 640%

School 40% · district not reported

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

Grade 735%

School 35% · district not reported

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

Grade 830%

School 30% · district not reported

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

Science

Grade 528%

School 28% · district not reported

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 823%

School 23% · district not reported

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▲ 1 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-income28%Higher-income60%32 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income39%Higher-income63%25 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income31%Higher-income72%42 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income39%Higher-income42%2 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income33%Higher-income42%8 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income29%Higher-income33%5 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income34%Higher-income60%26 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income39%Higher-income57%18 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income27%Higher-income53%25 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income31%Higher-income42%11 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income26%Higher-income44%19 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income26%Higher-income22%4 pp gap