Christa Mcauliffe Elementary, Bakersfield CA

Original Research by School Decision on Christa Mcauliffe Elementary

Christa McAuliffe Elementary serves kindergarten through sixth grade in the Westwold neighborhood of southwest Bakersfield as part of the Panama-Buena Vista Union School District. The school enrolls a diverse student body of roughly five hundred students, most of whom qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student population is roughly evenly split between Hispanic and white students, with meaningful representation from Black and Asian students and a smaller multiracial cohort. The enrollment skews toward the upper grades, particularly sixth grade.

The school's academic performance shows uneven results across subjects and grade levels. In English language arts overall, about half of students score at proficient or above. Performance is stronger in fourth and sixth grades, where roughly just over half of students meet proficiency, while third grade lags noticeably at around a third proficient. Mathematics presents a steeper challenge. School-wide math proficiency sits in the low to mid-range, with fourth grade performing best at around half proficient, but third and fifth grades significantly lower. Fifth grade in particular shows marked difficulty in math, with proficiency well below the school average. Science proficiency at fifth grade, the only grade tested, falls into the low range. The school sits in the top quartile of Kern County elementary schools on a composite proficiency index, suggesting that despite the soft spots in math and science, overall performance compares favorably within the county.

Most students live in neighborhoods requiring a car for daily errands, though Bakersfield's Kern River Parkway offers walking and cycling paths along the city's eastern edge. The wider Bakersfield area is experiencing substantial growth and new housing development, particularly in southwest neighborhoods where this school is located. Housing values in the 93311 zip code are moderate relative to state benchmarks, and rents are stable. The district itself is undertaking significant facility modernization funded by a voter-approved bond measure and is opening a new school for the 2025-26 school year with accompanying boundary changes that families should confirm directly with the school.

What stands out pedagogically is the gap between reading and math: students are performing better in English language arts than in mathematics, and that gap widens in the upper elementary grades. A parent evaluating this school may want to ask directly about the school's math support and intervention structures, particularly for students in grades three and five. The overall academic picture is one of a school working with a lower-income, culturally diverse student body in a rapidly growing part of the city, posting results that keep pace with its county peers while facing particular challenges in quantitative reasoning.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 325%

School 25% · District 41% · ▼ 16 pts below district

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

Grade 450%

School 50% · District 39% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

Grade 519%

School 19% · District 26% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 640%

School 40% · District 32% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 332%

School 32% · District 42% · ▼ 9 pts below district

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

Grade 454%

School 54% · District 45% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

Grade 544%

School 44% · District 45% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 654%

School 54% · District 50% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 529%

School 29% · District 28% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

This schoolPanama-Buena Vista Union, 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-income47%18 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income42%Higher-income78%36 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income47%Higher-income77%30 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income21%Higher-income40%19 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income42%Higher-income67%25 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income33%Higher-income62%28 pp gap