Cleo Gordon Elementary, Fairfield CA

Original Research by School Decision on Cleo Gordon Elementary

Cleo Gordon Elementary serves kindergarten through fifth grade in Fairfield, California, as part of the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District. The school enrolls a student body that is predominantly Hispanic, with substantial Black, Asian, and multiracial representation. A very large share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting economic pressures across the school community.

State assessment data from the current year shows weak proficiency across tested subjects. In mathematics, proficiency rates across grades three through five are very low, with fourth grade performing lowest. English language arts results are higher than math but still below proficiency targets, with third grade performing somewhat better than grades four and five. Fifth grade science proficiency is also quite low. When proficiency is averaged across all tested subjects and grades, Cleo Gordon's overall performance sits at the bottom quartile among Solano County school districts.

The school's academic context reflects broader challenges. The payload contained only one year of assessment data, so trend information is limited and does not indicate whether performance is rising, falling, or stable. State testing data for kindergarten through second grade are not available because California does not assess those grades. Special education and English learner enrollment counts were not reported in the available data, so the full extent of these populations within the school is unknown. Parents may want to ask the school directly about these student groups and what supports are in place for them.

Fairfield itself is a mixed-use city between San Francisco and Sacramento, home to Travis Air Force Base, the Jelly Belly factory, and major employers in healthcare, manufacturing, and government. The city has a revitalizing downtown core and is in substantial growth mode with major housing projects underway, including the Villages at Fairfield in the northeast and the Train Station Specific Plan near the Capitol Corridor station. The housing market shows median home prices above the state benchmark, and rental costs are moderate relative to income.

The Fairfield-Suisun district is actively investing in school facilities. Voters approved a major bond for facilities work, and the district is also pursuing intermediate financing to keep construction moving. A notable program shift within the district is the relocation of the Spanish Dual Immersion Program's elementary component to Sullivan Language Immersion Academy, making that a choice option for families seeking bilingual instruction. These are the kinds of district-level developments that shape school-building activities and property-tax environments for families in the area.

Cleo Gordon's small size for its grade band and its high-poverty student composition are plain facts about the school. The academic performance data raise clear questions that a parent would want to explore directly with the school: what instructional approaches are in place, what interventions exist for students not meeting grade-level standards, and what the school sees as barriers to proficiency and as priorities for improvement.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 313%

School 13% · District 31% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▼ 30 pts below state median · ▼ 20 pts below county median

Grade 49%

School 9% · District 34% · ▼ 24 pts below district

▼ 28 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Grade 512%

School 12% · District 30% · ▼ 18 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 329%

School 29% · District 35% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 422%

School 22% · District 38% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 523%

School 23% · District 43% · ▼ 20 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Science

Grade 516%

School 16% · District 28% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

This schoolFairfield-Suisun 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.