The top reported proficiency rate is 45% in English language arts. The lowest is 23% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Levi H. Dickey Elementary
Levi H. Dickey Elementary sits on Parco Avenue in Ontario, California, serving kindergarten through sixth grade as a regular public school within Chino Valley Unified. Ontario itself is a sprawling Inland Empire city that doubles as a logistics and distribution hub, with Ontario International Airport and major warehousing and retail operations shaping its economy. The older downtown along Euclid Avenue has a walkable, historic character with a community library, Ontario Town Square, and landscaped public corridors, while the city's southern edge is undergoing one of Southern California's most ambitious residential expansions through a large master-planned community. That growth means the city's school-age population is expanding, and new campuses are being built to keep pace.
On California's statewide assessments, Dickey's results tell a mixed story. English language arts proficiency holds in the mid-forties across tested grades, with fourth grade performing the strongest among those measured. Math results are more varied: third and sixth grade come in just below or just above the low-forties, while fifth grade drops notably lower. Science, assessed only at fifth grade, also comes in well below half of students scoring proficient. Taken together across all tested subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile relative to districts in San Bernardino County, which is a meaningful position in a county with a wide range of schools. Parents who want to understand where individual grades are relative to state benchmarks would benefit from a direct conversation with the school about what interventions are in place, particularly at fifth grade where both math and science results are the weakest.
A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that a significant portion of families face economic pressures. The student population is predominantly Hispanic, with smaller shares of white, multiracial, Black, and Asian students. Data on English learner enrollment and special education rates were not available in what was provided.
Chino Valley Unified, which operates Dickey, has been publicly reported as a district that posted measurable academic gains through a professional learning communities and mathematics-focused instructional approach, with math and ELA proficiency rising faster than state averages and the achievement gap narrowing across subgroups. That district-level trajectory is worth weighing alongside the school-level results above. The district has also been at the center of a prolonged and contentious legal dispute over a parental notification policy related to student gender identity, pronoun use, and name changes. The district was the first in California to adopt such a policy, which then drew a lawsuit from the state Attorney General, a court injunction, a revised policy, and continuing litigation. The status of that dispute remains unresolved, and it represents an unusually high-stakes governance situation that families with students across any part of the identity spectrum may want to follow closely.
Housing near the school reflects the broader Ontario and Inland Empire market. Home values in the immediate zip code have edged slightly downward over the past year, though they remain well above national medians and only modestly below the California state benchmark. Rents have moved in the opposite direction, ticking up year over year. At current mortgage rates, the estimated monthly cost of ownership relative to median household income places the area in a meaningfully stretched affordability position, and rent consumes a high share of a typical household's income. For families weighing whether to buy or rent in this part of Ontario, the numbers suggest neither option is particularly comfortable by national standards.
Chronic absenteeism data and graduation rates do not apply to this school given its elementary grade band, and no program offerings data was available. Trend data covers only the most recent year, so it is not possible to characterize whether Dickey's results have been improving, declining, or holding steady over time.
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