Mckinley Elementary, San Jose CA

Original Research by School Decision on Mckinley Elementary

McKinley Elementary is a small K-6 school in San Jose, located in the 95116 zip code on Macredes Avenue. It serves about a quarter-thousand students, with enrollment fairly balanced across grade levels from kindergarten through sixth grade.

The school serves a highly economically disadvantaged population. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with small representation from other racial and ethnic groups, and limited racial diversity overall.

State assessment data from 2024-25 shows that academic proficiency across tested grades and subjects is substantially below district and state benchmarks. In math, proficiency ranges from low performance in fifth grade to moderate performance in third grade, but remains well below half proficient across the grade band. In English language arts, proficiency is similarly constrained, with one grade showing particularly low results. Science proficiency, tested in fifth grade, is also very low. When proficiency rates are averaged across all tested subjects and grades, the school ranks in the bottom quartile among the county's districts in overall proficiency. A parent may want to look into what academic supports and interventions the school is implementing to address these results, and whether there have been staffing, curriculum, or program changes underway.

No data was available on the school's special education enrollment, English learner classification, chronic absenteeism, or graduation rate. The latter makes sense because the school does not serve high school grades; a parent evaluating a student's full K-12 pathway would need to examine what middle and high schools feed from this elementary school.

San Jose is a sprawling, car-dependent city of mixed neighborhoods, from dense downtown to suburban single-family areas. The housing market in the school's zip code is expensive relative to the region and nation, and rents have been rising. The broader area is anchored by major technology employers, particularly Cisco, Apple, Google, and Intel. Downtown San Jose is undergoing substantial residential development, with multiple high-rise projects underway and Google's large mixed-use development planned around Diridon Station, though office-to-residential conversion is becoming the norm as office demand has softened. The school's location in West San Jose places it well away from this downtown activity and investment focus.

McKinley is part of Franklin-McKinley Elementary, a small district of its own. No recent district-level strategic changes or initiatives were available in the data gathered.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 337%

School 37% · District 34% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Grade 424%

School 24% · District 30% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

Grade 510%

School 10% · District 25% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 37 pts below county median

Grade 619%

School 19% · District 29% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 27 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 315%

School 15% · District 31% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 37 pts below county median

Grade 436%

School 36% · District 32% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Grade 54%

School 4% · District 35% · ▼ 31 pts below district

▼ 42 pts below state median · ▼ 54 pts below county median

Grade 634%

School 34% · District 37% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Science

Grade 510%

School 10% · District 21% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 34 pts below county median

This schoolFranklin-McKinley 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.