Mains Elementary, Calexico CA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Mains Elementary

Mains Elementary, located in Calexico, serves kindergarten through sixth grade in a small border city where the school population reflects its setting: almost all students are Hispanic or Latino, a substantial majority qualify for free or reduced-price meals, and the student body is drawn from a community built on cross-border commerce, agriculture, and service industries. The school sits within Calexico Unified, which recently passed a substantial bond measure to modernize its high school and consolidate ninth-graders back from a separate academy campus, changes that will reshape secondary pathways for the district's students.

Academic performance at Mains Elementary is significantly below state standard across measured subjects and grades. In English language arts, proficiency ranges from around one in ten students in fourth grade to roughly one in three in sixth grade, with third grade near that mid-range. Math proficiency is similarly low, bottoming out at single-digit proficiency in fifth grade and rebounding only somewhat in third and sixth grade. Science proficiency data are available only for fifth grade, where proficiency is in the single digits. Taken as a whole, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile when compared against other schools in Imperial County. The data suggest a pattern in which older elementary grades show somewhat better performance than the upper-middle grades, though throughout the school, most students are not meeting proficiency targets. A parent may want to understand whether the school has diagnostic data or intervention plans in place to address these trends, particularly the sharp drop in fourth and fifth grade.

The student population at Mains is small for an elementary school, with modest enrollment spread unevenly across grades. Kindergarten is substantially larger than the other primary grades, while upper-elementary grades three through six cluster within a narrower band. Nearly all students are eligible for free or reduced-price meals, reflecting high economic need. Demographic data show the student body is overwhelmingly Hispanic or Latino, with a very small number of white and multiracial students. English learner and special education rates were not available in the reported data.

Calexico itself is a tight-knit community at the southern edge of the Imperial Valley, abutting Mexicali, Mexico. Downtown clusters markets and restaurants near the border crossing, handling steady pedestrian traffic; outside the core, the city is car-dependent. Housing in the Calexico zip code is substantially less expensive than the California and national medians. The city is pursuing growth through a draft housing plan and recent residential permits, though it has recovered gradually from the earlier housing crisis. The district's bond-funded construction projects have created visible campus changes, particularly the planned consolidation of high school grades, which will reverberate across family pathways over the next several years.

The school's position in its county peer group and the academic performance data should factor into a family's planning. Mains serves a population with substantial socioeconomic and linguistic complexity; how the school addresses that profile in daily practice would merit closer conversation with school staff, particularly around reading and numeracy support and any programs targeting the grade-level swings the test results reveal.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 333%

School 33% · District 24% · ▲ 9 pts above district

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

Grade 411%

School 11% · District 19% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

Grade 55%

School 5% · District 16% · ▼ 11 pts below district

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

Grade 635%

School 35% · District 24% · ▲ 11 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 330%

School 30% · District 24% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

Grade 49%

School 9% · District 22% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

Grade 518%

School 18% · District 25% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

Grade 636%

School 36% · District 32% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Science

Grade 59%

School 9% · District 13% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below 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.