Dream Academy, Lakeside CA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Dream Academy

DREAM Academy is an alternative public school serving kindergarten through eighth grade in Lakeside, a rural-leaning East County community about thirty miles inland from coastal San Diego. It operates as part of the Lakeside Union Elementary School District and enrolls a small student body of about seventy-five students, roughly balanced between grades, with a substantial share qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch and a student body that is predominantly white and Hispanic with smaller shares of Asian, Black, and multiracial students.

As an alternative school, DREAM Academy operates outside the mainstream district pathway and likely serves students with distinct needs—whether academic, behavioral, or developmental—though the specific alternative model and its particular offerings are not detailed in available data. The school's physical location on Valle Vista Road places it in Lakeside proper, in a community that deliberately preserves a rural and small-town character with horse ownership, farmland, and single-family homes mixing with newer residential development.

Academic performance at DREAM Academy shows weak proficiency in both English language arts and math on California's state assessments. Across third through seventh grades tested, ELA proficiency ranges from very low in third grade to moderate in the upper elementary and middle grades. Math proficiency sits consistently below forty percent across tested grades, with one grade showing about forty-five percent proficiency. Science results, where available, show moderate performance. The school lacks trend data—only one year of assessment results is on file—so a parent cannot track whether the school is moving in any direction. Data for eighth grade is suppressed, likely due to small test group size, which fits the school's small overall enrollment.

The school does not report state graduation rate data because it does not serve high school grades. Chronic absenteeism and discipline information were not available. The specific curriculum, instructional approach, staffing, and day-to-day operating model of DREAM Academy do not appear in the public record reviewed, so a parent would want to contact the school directly to understand its teaching philosophy, class sizes, whether it offers counseling or behavioral support, and how it differs from or complements the district's traditional programs.

In the county comparison group of San Diego County districts assessed across tested grades and subjects, DREAM Academy's overall proficiency index sits below the midpoint, placing it below where most other tested schools in the county land. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, particularly to understand whether DREAM Academy is designed as a remedial or supportive intervention for students who struggled elsewhere, or whether it serves a different population with different success measures not captured in state testing alone.

The parent district, Lakeside Union Elementary, has invested in distinctive language-immersion pathways, notably a dual Spanish-and-Mandarin program at Riverview International Academy that feeds into a K-12 triliteracy track ending with the State Seal of Biliteracy. However, DREAM Academy does not appear to be part of that pathway. The district also faced a failed facilities bond in 2020, leaving deferred maintenance and capital needs unmet; the district launched a facility planning study in 2026, signaling that infrastructure remains a concern. The community itself offers Lindo Lake County Park as a civic anchor with recreation and the library nearby, and Lakeside's housing market sits comfortably below the San Diego countywide median, with both homeownership and rental costs on the lower side for the region.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 329%

School 29% · District 46% · ▼ 17 pts below district

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

Grade 431%

School 31% · District 42% · ▼ 11 pts below district

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

Grade 546%

School 46% · District 31% · ▲ 15 pts above district

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

Grade 632%

School 32% · District 26% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 733%

School 33% · District 34%

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 37%

School 7% · District 50% · ▼ 43 pts below district

▼ 33 pts below state median · ▼ 40 pts below county median

Grade 446%

School 46% · District 46% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 555%

School 55% · District 52% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 655%

School 55% · District 46% · ▲ 9 pts above district

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

Grade 742%

School 42% · District 50% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Science

Grade 550%

School 50% · District 37% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▲ 22 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

This schoolLakeside Union 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.