Live Oak Elementary, Castaic CA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Live Oak Elementary

Live Oak Elementary serves about five hundred students in kindergarten through sixth grade in Castaic, an unincorporated residential community in northwestern Los Angeles County. The school sits in a bedroom suburb bisected by Interstate 5, where the landscape is dominated by housing, open space, and Castaic Lake rather than commercial density. Castaic itself is car-dependent, with shopping and dining concentrated along Castaic Road and the I-5 exits, and most major retail about nine to twelve miles away in Valencia and Old Town Newhall. The wider area is on a clear growth trajectory, with new master-planned residential developments under construction and dozens of new-home communities in various stages of completion.

Enrollment at Live Oak is distributed fairly evenly across grades, with roughly equal numbers in most cohorts. Just under half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with meaningful shares of white and multiracial students, a smaller Asian and Black enrollment, and very few Native American or Pacific Islander students.

Academic performance across the school is below the midpoint among districts in Los Angeles County. In English language arts, Live Oak shows uneven results by grade: third-grade proficiency is in the high thirties, fourth grade drops notably to the low thirties, fifth grade recovers to the low forties, and sixth grade rises sharply to the upper sixties. Math performance runs consistently in the mid-thirties to low forties across grades three through six, with fourth grade the lowest point. Science proficiency in fifth grade, the only grade tested, sits in the high twenties, reflecting a clear weak spot. The school has only one year of recent data, so trend analysis is not yet possible.

The Castaic Union School District has made two consequential changes that affect families. Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, the district eliminated home-to-school transportation for general education students, continuing it only for special education students whose IEPs require it. This removes a long-standing optional service and places the daily commute burden directly on parents, a practical factor worth knowing before choosing the school or relocating to the area. Additionally, in 2024, the property-tax rate on the district's school facility bond was raised from the originally projected level toward the maximum allowed under state law, increasing what homeowners in district boundaries pay toward capital improvements. The Measure QS bond has funded modernization work at Live Oak, including facility upgrades.

Castaic itself offers limited commercial amenities but defines itself around Castaic Lake State Recreation Area, a large county recreation area with trails, boating, and a swim lagoon that anchors outdoor life in the community. The nearest Metrolink station is about eleven miles away in Santa Clarita, and local transit via Santa Clarita Transit bus routes connects to Valencia's regional transit center. The area has above-average shares of artists, designers, media workers, and people who work from home, suggesting a mixed employment base. A parent considering Live Oak would want to be realistic about the school's current academic standing, understand that transportation is now a parental responsibility, and be prepared for the car-dependent character of daily life in Castaic itself.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 340%

School 40% · District 52% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

Grade 435%

School 35% · District 54% · ▼ 19 pts below district

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

Grade 539%

School 39% · District 42% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 642%

School 42% · District 49% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 339%

School 39% · District 55% · ▼ 17 pts below district

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

Grade 430%

School 30% · District 49% · ▼ 18 pts below district

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

Grade 540%

School 40% · District 50% · ▼ 9 pts below district

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

Grade 668%

School 68% · District 65% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 23 pts above county median

Science

Grade 527%

School 27% · District 34% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 1 pts below state median · even with county median

This schoolCastaic 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-income27%Higher-income53%26 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income23%Higher-income42%19 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income29%Higher-income54%26 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income67%Higher-income69%2 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income32%Higher-income50%18 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income30%Higher-income42%12 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income36%Higher-income42%6 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income33%Higher-income55%22 pp gap