San Marino Elementary, Buena Park CA

Original Research by School Decision on San Marino Elementary

San Marino Elementary sits on a residential street in Buena Park, a northwest Orange County city where older block-style neighborhoods from the postwar decades surround a commercial corridor anchored by Knott's Berry Farm and a string of entertainment venues. The school serves kindergarten through sixth grade within the Centralia Elementary School District, a district that has historically been early to experiment with early childhood programs and biliteracy pathways.

The student body is majority Hispanic, with a meaningful share of Asian students, smaller groups of white and multiracial students, and a very small Black student population. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places this squarely in the higher-need range for economic context. English learner counts were not available in the data provided.

On the most recent California state assessments, proficiency across tested grades in both English language arts and math lands below the midpoint relative to districts in Orange County. In ELA, results vary by grade, with fifth grade reaching above half of students proficient while third and fourth grade sit noticeably lower. Math follows a similar pattern, hovering around or just below half proficient in the lower grades and dipping more in sixth grade. Science results from the fifth-grade state assessment came in just under half proficient. These are the most current figures available; only one year of data was provided, so trend direction cannot be assessed. Parents who want to understand whether performance has been moving up or down would be worth asking the school directly about that trajectory.

Because this school serves only through sixth grade, graduation rate does not apply here and the data does not include one. Chronic absenteeism data was also not available in what was provided.

Centralia Elementary District has a few developments worth knowing. It operates a Spanish-English Dual Language Immersion program, housed at Centralia Elementary School in Anaheim rather than at San Marino, following a model that begins with heavy Spanish instruction in kindergarten and shifts toward more English across grades. Families interested in a biliteracy pathway would need to enroll at that specific campus, which is a multi-year commitment through sixth grade. Separately, the district has used voter-approved bond funds to complete classroom modernization projects in recent years, including new classroom construction and campus infrastructure work. The district also moved early to offer transitional kindergarten, and California's statewide expansion of pre-K for four-year-olds has continued to build on that foundation.

The neighborhood context matters for housing decisions. Home values in this zip code sit well above the California statewide median and substantially above the national median, placing Buena Park in expensive territory for buyers. Estimated carrying costs on a typical home purchase at current mortgage rates would consume a considerable share of a typical household's income. Rents are also high, running well above the national norm, and the rent-to-income ratio is stretched. Year-over-year, home values in this area are essentially flat, while rents have edged slightly lower. Buena Park is actively redeveloping aging retail sites into mixed-use residential, with a large project replacing a former anchor department store already approved and a second tower proposed nearby, so the housing supply picture may shift over the coming years.

Day-to-day life in the area is car-oriented. Walkability varies; the Koreatown-flavored commercial corridor around Beach Boulevard and Commonwealth is the most pedestrian-accessible part of the city, with grocery anchors and restaurants concentrated there. A Metrolink commuter rail station is embedded in a transit-oriented residential neighborhood about a mile from the main commercial strip. The Buena Park Library District, which serves civic functions well beyond books, was in the middle of a relocation to a new facility as of mid-2025, with reopening expected in 2026.

Program offerings specific to San Marino Elementary were not available in the data, so any enrichment, intervention, or extracurricular information would require a direct conversation with the school.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 348%

School 48% · District 59% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 440%

School 40% · District 57% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 548%

School 48% · District 54% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 633%

School 33% · District 53% · ▼ 20 pts below district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 343%

School 43% · District 54% · ▼ 11 pts below district

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

Grade 437%

School 37% · District 56% · ▼ 19 pts below district

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

Grade 554%

School 54% · District 63% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

Grade 644%

School 44% · District 59% · ▼ 15 pts below district

even with state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Science

Grade 548%

School 48% · District 49%

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

This schoolCentralia Elementary, 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-income39%Higher-income47%8 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income13%Higher-income69%56 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income26%Higher-income78%52 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income27%Higher-income58%32 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income44%Higher-income52%8 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income21%Higher-income65%44 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income19%Higher-income72%53 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income16%Higher-income48%32 pp gap