Biggs Elementary, Biggs CA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Biggs Elementary

Biggs Elementary sits on B Street in the center of a small, tight-knit agricultural town in the Northern Sacramento Valley, surrounded by rice fields and walnut orchards. The school serves kindergarten through eighth grade, meaning it is the single public school most children in this community attend for nine years before moving on to high school. The campus, the school district office, and the main commercial strip all share the same corridor, giving the school a genuinely embedded presence in town rather than a removed, campus-style setting.

The student body is modest in size for a K-8 school. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic character of the surrounding community. The student population is roughly split between students who identify as white and students who identify as Hispanic, with small numbers from other backgrounds. Data on English learner enrollment and special education rates were not available in the information provided.

State assessment results from the most recent school year give parents a clear picture, and it is a challenging one. In English language arts, proficiency rates across tested grades range from the low twenties to the mid-forties, with eighth grade showing the strongest results. Math proficiency is lower across the board, ranging from the high single digits to the low thirties, with fifth and seventh grades sitting at the lower end of that range. Science results, tested at fifth and eighth grade, are similarly modest. Taken together, the school's overall proficiency index places it below the midpoint among districts in Butte County, based on that comparison set. Only one year of data is currently available, so it is not possible to assess whether results are improving, holding, or declining. A parent who wants to understand the trajectory should ask the school directly about that question.

There are no AP or dual-enrollment programs here, which is expected given the K-8 grade band. The school does not serve high school grades, so graduation rate is not applicable. Program offering data beyond what the assessment results imply was not available, so we left it out rather than guess.

The community itself is worth understanding. Biggs is genuinely small and rural, described publicly as quiet and slower-paced, where neighbors tend to know one another. The town has sidewalks and parks, a library with roots in an early Carnegie grant, a golf course, a pool, and a community center. Butte Regional Transit connects Biggs to Gridley, Oroville, and Chico, though weekday service runs only into the early afternoon, which matters for families without a car. Agricultural truck traffic is a daily reality on the roads.

On the housing side, home values in the area run well below the California statewide figure and sit close to the national median, making Biggs one of the more accessible housing markets for buyers priced out of larger California cities. Rental cost data was not available. Publicly reported information indicates that voters in November 2024 approved a bond measure that will fund construction of a gymnasium at the elementary school and permanent classrooms to replace mobile units. The bond is repaid through property tax levies on district homeowners, which is a direct cost consideration for anyone buying here. The facilities improvements, once built, will be concrete additions for students.

Families considering Biggs Elementary should go in knowing the academic proficiency data is well below state averages across nearly every tested grade and subject. That is a real gap worth exploring with the school. At the same time, the community setting is distinctive: a rural, agricultural small town with low housing costs, a physically compact and neighborly character, and a school that will serve a child from kindergarten through eighth grade within walking distance of the center of town.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 330%

School 30% · District 42% · ▼ 11 pts below district

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

Grade 421%

School 21% · District 36% · ▼ 15 pts below district

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

Grade 59%

School 9% · District 12% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 627%

School 27% · District 31% · ▼ 4 pts below district

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

Grade 710%

School 10% · District 10%

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

Grade 812%

School 12% · District 12%

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

English language arts

Grade 322%

School 22% · District 32% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

Grade 424%

School 24% · District 29% · ▼ 4 pts below district

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

Grade 534%

School 34% · District 34%

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

Grade 637%

School 37% · District 44% · ▼ 7 pts below district

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

Grade 728%

School 28% · District 28%

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

Grade 845%

School 45% · District 45%

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

Science

Grade 517%

School 17% · District 17%

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

Grade 812%

School 12% · District 12%

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 822%

School 22% · District 22%

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

This schoolBiggs 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 7Lower-income29%Higher-income25%4 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income29%Higher-income62%33 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 7Lower-income11%Higher-income8%3 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income5%Higher-income19%15 pp gap