Kennedy Gardens Elementary, Calexico CA

Original Research by School Decision on Kennedy Gardens Elementary

Kennedy Gardens Elementary sits in Calexico, a small border city at the southern edge of the Imperial Valley, directly across from Mexicali, Mexico. The school serves kindergarten through sixth grade and draws students almost exclusively from the immediate neighborhood. Nearly all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the student body is overwhelmingly Hispanic/Latino. The enrollment is stable across grade levels and modest in overall size.

State testing data from spring 2025 shows the school facing substantial headwinds in both English language arts and mathematics. Across all tested grades, proficiency in ELA sits below one-fifth, with fourth grade performing lowest. Math proficiency is even lower, ranging from roughly one in ten to one in five across third through sixth grade. In science, fifth-grade proficiency was about one in four. These results place the school in the bottom quartile among other districts across Imperial County on an overall proficiency index. The school operates in a context where many students are learning English as an additional language; the payload does not specify the count of English learners or students receiving special education services, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about those numbers and what targeted support exists.

Calexico itself is a working-class border community with strong cross-border ties. The cost of homeownership is below the state average, and housing has appreciated modestly. The city is car-dependent outside its downtown, though the pedestrian port of entry near downtown creates a hub of daily foot traffic. Commercial life centers on retail, health care, and education; the Calexico Unified School District is a substantial employer. Recent years have seen residential construction begin again after the post-2008 downturn, with a housing plan in place to accommodate growth through the end of the decade.

The district itself is undertaking significant infrastructure change. A bond passed by voters several years ago is funding modernization of Calexico High School and a shift in how ninth through twelfth grades are organized across campuses. These construction projects began in 2021 and will reshape the school experience for students moving through the system. The bond is repaid through property taxes, creating an ongoing cost to homeowners in the district.

Kennedy Gardens is a regular public school with no charter or magnet designation. The school's profile shows only one year of state assessment data, so trends over time are not yet visible. For families considering the school, the key questions center on how the school is responding to the low proficiency rates, what English language development and special education services are available, and how the recent construction and reorganization in the district might affect staffing and resources at the elementary level.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 319%

School 19% · District 24% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

Grade 412%

School 12% · District 19% · ▼ 7 pts below district

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

Grade 520%

School 20% · District 16% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▼ 10 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 610%

School 10% · District 24% · ▼ 13 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 316%

School 16% · District 24% · ▼ 7 pts below district

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

Grade 412%

School 12% · District 22% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

Grade 527%

School 27% · District 25% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Grade 621%

School 21% · District 32% · ▼ 11 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 523%

School 23% · District 13% · ▲ 10 pts above district

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

This schoolCalexico 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.