Palm Elementary, Orosi CA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Palm Elementary

Palm Elementary is a small rural elementary school serving kindergarten through fifth grade in Orosi, an agricultural community in the San Joaquin Valley portion of Tulare County. The school draws nearly all of its students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, with the vast majority qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch.

The community around the school is predominantly Latino, family-oriented, and centered on agricultural work. Orosi is an unincorporated area surrounded by farmland where citrus, grapes, dairy, and peaches are the main crops. Most families own their homes, and life revolves around a few shared anchors like Ledbetter Park and the historic Carnegie library on the town's main commercial corridor. The broader Cutler-Orosi school district recently opened six new transitional kindergarten and kindergarten buildings at Palm School in spring of 2025, adding dedicated early-learning space that reflects the school's role serving the younger grades of the region.

On state assessments, Palm's academic performance sits below the state midpoint. In English language arts, students in the tested grades show proficiency rates ranging from about half in grade three to roughly the same in grade five, with grade four performing somewhat higher. Math proficiency is lower, ranging from the low-to-mid range in grade three to below that in grade five. Science proficiency at grade five is notably weak. Across all tested subjects and grades combined, the school's overall proficiency index ranks in the top quartile among school buildings in Tulare County, a positioning that reflects strong performance relative to other schools in the district's rural county context, though the school's absolute proficiency levels remain modest. No multi-year trend data is available to assess whether performance is improving or stable.

The school has no reported data on the share of students with disabilities or English learner status. Housing in the Orosi zip code is modest in value compared to state and national medians, and the unemployment rate and median household income data for the county reflect economic conditions typical of an agricultural region.

Parents should expect a small, traditional elementary with a newly modernized kindergarten campus. The school sits within a district that has invested in new facilities and continues to serve a community where nearly all families work in or near agriculture. A parent may want to look further into the school's approach to math instruction and science, given the proficiency levels in those subjects.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 354%

School 54% · District 54% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 448%

School 48% · District 34% · ▲ 14 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

Grade 541%

School 41% · District 35% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 349%

School 49% · District 43% · ▲ 5 pts above district

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

Grade 456%

School 56% · District 48% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

Grade 548%

School 48% · District 42% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 516%

School 16% · District 17% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

This schoolCutler-Orosi Joint 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.