Lake Elementary, Orland CA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Lake Elementary

Lake Elementary serves kindergarten through eighth grade in Orland, a rural agricultural town in the northern Sacramento Valley. The school sits in a close-knit, slow-paced community known for farming and queen bee production, where civic life centers around a walkable downtown and families tend to own homes and cars. The school itself enrolls about two hundred students in roughly balanced class sizes across all nine grade levels.

Academically, Lake Elementary shows an uneven profile across grade levels and subjects. In English language arts, students in the lower and middle grades struggle: third grade shows adequate proficiency, but fourth and fifth grades drop sharply, with fifth grade performing particularly low. The picture improves substantially in grades six through eight, where proficiency climbs back to strong levels. Mathematics presents a steeper challenge overall. Third grade performs well, fourth grade falls to roughly half proficiency, and fifth grade becomes the weakest point schoolwide, with proficiency in single digits. Sixth grade rebounds to around three-quarters proficiency, but seventh grade dips again into the lower range; eighth grade recovers to around half proficiency. Science proficiency, tested in fifth and eighth grades only, mirrors the pattern: fifth grade shows low results while eighth grade sits at about half. The school's average across all tested subjects and grades places it in the top quartile among districts countywide, yet the volatility and particular weakness in upper elementary math and science warrant a parent's close attention. The drops in fourth and fifth grades in both subjects are pronounced enough that a family would want to understand what happens in those years and whether intervention or support structures exist.

The student body is economically mixed. About two in five students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Racially and ethnically, the enrollment is majority white with a substantial Hispanic population, smaller numbers of Asian, American Indian, Black, and Pacific Islander students, and no students reported in the two-or-more-races category. Data on English learners and students with disabilities was not available, so the picture of support services and instructional adaptations is incomplete.

Orland itself is growing, with new housing subdivisions actively under construction and strong demand for family-oriented residential development. The median home value in the area is moderate compared to the state benchmark, and mortgage estimates are relatively affordable. The town has a developed civic infrastructure including parks, a public library, recreational facilities, and bus service connecting to regional destinations. Schools in the district are dispersed throughout the town's street grid rather than consolidated on a single campus, keeping them integrated into neighborhood life.

The school's grade span and rural setting mean it does not report high school outcomes, graduation rates, or advanced course pathways; these are not gaps in data but reflections of what the school is. A parent considering Lake Elementary would see a school where upper elementary mathematics and science warrant scrutiny, where the student body is economically and ethnically diverse, and where the wider community is small, family-centered, and actively developing. Specific questions about classroom practices, staffing continuity, and the causes of the grade-level performance dips would help round out the picture.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 381%

School 81% · District 81%

▲ 38 pts above state median

Grade 441%

School 41% · District 41%

▲ 3 pts above state median

Grade 512%

School 12% · District 12%

▼ 18 pts below state median

Grade 674%

School 74% · District 74%

▲ 43 pts above state median

Grade 729%

School 29% · District 29%

▼ 1 pts below state median

Grade 856%

School 56% · District 56%

▲ 28 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 371%

School 71% · District 71%

▲ 31 pts above state median

Grade 455%

School 55% · District 55%

▲ 13 pts above state median

Grade 524%

School 24% · District 24%

▼ 21 pts below state median

Grade 690%

School 90% · District 90%

▲ 46 pts above state median

Grade 781%

School 81% · District 81%

▲ 36 pts above state median

Grade 889%

School 89% · District 89%

▲ 45 pts above state median

Science

Grade 524%

School 24% · District 24%

▼ 4 pts below state median

Grade 850%

School 50% · District 50%

▲ 24 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 857%

School 57% · District 57%

▲ 8 pts above state median

This schoolLake 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 5Lower-income27%Higher-income21%6 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income9%Higher-income14%5 pp gap