The top reported proficiency rate is 80% in English language arts. The lowest is 62% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Neil Cummins Elementary
Neil Cummins Elementary sits on Mohawk Avenue in Corte Madera, a small, essentially built-out town in Marin County that stretches between San Francisco Bay and the slopes of Mt. Tamalpais. The town's economic backbone is retail, anchored by two large open-air shopping centers that generate a substantial share of municipal sales tax revenue. Civic life revolves around the library branch near the Town Center, a weekly farmers' market in the Town Center courtyard, and the Corte Madera Creek Pathway, a multiuse trail that connects neighborhoods and draws commuters and cyclists. Most daily errands require a car, though streetside amenities and both shopping centers are designed as walkable destinations. Residents with San Francisco commutes can reach the Larkspur Ferry Terminal in a short drive. New housing is largely limited to commercial redevelopment sites; a proposed multi-family project on Tamal Vista Boulevard, approved for design review by the Planning Commission in spring 2025, drew public comment about school capacity, which is worth tracking for families considering the area.
The school serves kindergarten through fifth grade, with enrollment that fills each grade band at roughly the size one would expect for a K-5 school of its type. The student body is predominantly white, with Hispanic students making up the next largest share and smaller numbers of Asian and multiracial students. A very small share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the high-income character of the surrounding community. Data on English learner enrollment and students with IEPs was not reported in what was available to us.
On California's CAASPP assessments, the academic results are a clear strength. Third-grade ELA and math proficiency both sit well above the state midpoint, and third-grade results are the strongest posted across all tested grades. By fifth grade, rates moderate somewhat, particularly in math and on the California Science Test, where roughly six in ten fifth graders scored proficient. That fifth-grade pattern is worth asking the school about directly, whether it reflects curriculum sequencing, cohort variation, or something else. Across all tested grades and subjects combined, Neil Cummins places in the top quartile relative to districts in Marin County, which is itself a high-performing county. Only one year of data was available, so trend direction cannot be determined from what we have.
The school is part of the Larkspur-Corte Madera School District. The district has faced real financial pressure in recent years, publicly reported to have cut roughly a fifth of its budget around 2022, with enrollment declining over the same period. Voters renewed an escalating parcel tax in 2022, and the district placed a facilities bond on the June 2026 ballot to fund roof, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and STEAM classroom upgrades; publicly reported materials describe the bond as structured to extend existing bonded debt without raising the current tax rate. Families buying into the attendance area take on both the parcel tax, which rises annually and was described as one of the steeper escalators among Marin County districts, and any future bond levy. The housing market here is among the most expensive in the state, with home values far above both California and national benchmarks and rents that consume a very high share of typical household income. A mortgage on a median-priced home in the zip code carries a monthly payment that would strain most national income benchmarks considerably.
No program offerings data was available for Neil Cummins specifically, and the school's grade band means graduation rates and the district's strategic priorities for high school pathways are not applicable here. Students from Corte Madera eventually feed into Hall Middle School and Redwood High School in neighboring Larkspur, so families planning ahead may want to look at the Tamalpais Union High School District, which operates Redwood, separately.
What the data shows is a high-performing elementary school in an affluent, stable, small town with good community amenities, meaningful housing costs, a district navigating enrollment and budget pressures, and ongoing capital investment questions that families will want to follow.
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