Neal Dow Elementary, Chico CA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Neal Dow Elementary

Neal Dow Elementary sits on Neal Dow Avenue in Chico, a mid-sized northern California college city shaped by Chico State, agriculture, healthcare, and manufacturing anchors like Sierra Nevada Brewing. The school serves kindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public school within Chico Unified.

The enrollment is a modest size for a K-through-5 school, and the student body reflects a mix of backgrounds. White students make up roughly half the enrollment, Hispanic students about a quarter, and multiracial students a notable share, with smaller numbers of Asian, Black, and Native American students. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which puts this squarely among the higher-need elementary schools in the district. Data on English learner enrollment and students with IEPs were not available in what was provided.

State assessment results from the most recent year are reported across reading, math, and science for grades three through five. Math proficiency tells a varied story by grade: third graders came in below the midpoint, fifth graders were similarly below the midpoint, while fourth graders performed meaningfully stronger, well above the halfway mark. In English language arts, third grade results were the weakest, falling below the midpoint, while fourth and fifth graders came in above it, with fifth grade the strongest reading cohort. Science results for fifth graders were near the midpoint. Taken together, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile relative to districts in Butte County, which is a real strength given the economic profile of the student body. That said, a number of students in most tested grades are not yet reaching proficiency in core subjects, and parents of children who need extra academic support may want to ask the school directly about intervention resources and how instruction is differentiated.

Multi-year trend data was available for only a single year, so there is no trajectory to describe. Whether recent results represent improvement, stability, or decline from prior years cannot be assessed from what is here.

On programs, course offerings, and staffing, the data provided was not available, and the district brief search was exhausted before any recent operational changes at Chico Unified could be confirmed. Parents looking into specific enrichment, arts, after-school, or special education programming would want to contact the school directly.

The surrounding housing market runs noticeably below California's state median home value, making Chico one of the more accessible parts of the state for buyers, though prices are above the national midpoint. Rents have been rising at a moderate pace. The city itself is on a documented growth path, with several residential developments in the pipeline and a major proposed development east of town. The west side is bounded by an agricultural growth line that has kept suburban sprawl in check. For families, daily life in Chico offers access to one of the largest municipal parks in the country in Bidwell Park, a walkable downtown core adjacent to the university, regional transit through B-Line, and a library branch that serves much of the city (though meeting rooms at that branch face a renovation closure starting in mid-2026, publicly reported).

Neal Dow draws from an economically mixed, predominantly residential part of Chico. Its academic results, viewed against the demographics it serves and positioned above most of the county's districts in overall proficiency, reflect a school doing reasonably well on tested outcomes relative to its peers. The gaps that remain in third-grade reading and fifth-grade math are real and worth understanding before enrolling, particularly for families whose children are still building foundational literacy and numeracy skills.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 347%

School 47% · District 48%

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

Grade 466%

School 66% · District 45% · ▲ 21 pts above district

▲ 28 pts above state median · ▲ 31 pts above county median

Grade 546%

School 46% · District 40% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 336%

School 36% · District 44% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

Grade 451%

School 51% · District 46% · ▲ 5 pts above district

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

Grade 560%

School 60% · District 54% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Science

Grade 546%

School 46% · District 39% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

This schoolChico 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income22%Higher-income63%41 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income41%Higher-income75%34 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income56%Higher-income68%12 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income17%Higher-income58%41 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income39%Higher-income63%24 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income55%Higher-income92%37 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income40%Higher-income59%19 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income14%Higher-income63%49 pp gap