The top reported proficiency rate is 24% in English language arts. The lowest is 8% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Redwood Elementary
Redwood Elementary sits on North Shafter Avenue in Shafter, a small Kern County city in the southern San Joaquin Valley that is growing fast but still feels like a farm town. The school serves kindergarten through sixth grade within the Richland Union Elementary district, drawing from a community where the dominant employers range from agricultural operations like Grimmway and the Garlic Company to the massive logistics complex anchored by Amazon, Target, and Walmart distribution centers. Publicly reported accounts describe Shafter as family-oriented, with well-used parks and a downtown core that city officials are actively trying to revitalize through facade grants and a development committee.
The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with that group making up the large majority of enrollment. A very high share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing the school squarely in the lower-income tier for Kern County. Data on English learner rates and students with IEPs were not available in the records reviewed.
State test results are reported for grades three through six on the California CAASPP Smarter Balanced assessments. In English language arts, proficiency rates across those grade levels are consistently low, running in the low-to-mid twenties range for most grades. Math results are lower still, holding in the mid-to-upper twenties for third and fourth grade before dropping sharply in fifth and sixth grade. Fifth-grade science results on the California Science Test are also very low. Taken together, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile relative to districts in Kern County. These are the most recent reported results and no multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say from this data whether scores are improving or holding flat. A parent who wants to understand what targeted supports the school provides in literacy and math would be well served to ask directly.
One note worth making: the data represents a single year, and the school serves a population where a large share of students may be English learners, though that rate was missing from the records. Schools serving high concentrations of English learners often post lower raw proficiency figures while still providing real instructional value; how the district is supporting language development is a question the data here cannot answer.
Within the Richland Union district, a Spanish-English Dual Language Immersion program is publicly reported to have launched at Golden Oak Elementary, with a grade-by-grade expansion that is expected to eventually reach through sixth grade. That pathway is housed at a different school, not at Redwood, so families specifically seeking dual-language instruction would want to confirm current enrollment options at Golden Oak.
On housing, the Shafter market sits meaningfully below the California state benchmark. Home values have seen a slight year-over-year dip, while the broader California market has also softened modestly. The area is well below the state median, which, combined with the logistics sector jobs nearby, has drawn families to new subdivisions in master-planned communities. Gossamer Grove, the city's largest housing development, is expected to eventually add a large number of homes with parks and schools, some distance southeast of the historic downtown. Rental data for the immediate area was not available in the records reviewed.
Shafter is a city adding housing, jobs, and population at a pace that outpaces many Central Valley peers. For families choosing Redwood Elementary, the practical picture is an affordable, growing small town with an agricultural and industrial identity, a school that reflects a high-need community, and academic outcomes that are below state midpoints. The gap between current proficiency levels and grade-level expectations is real, and families would benefit from a conversation with the school about how it structures intervention and support for students who are not yet meeting standards.
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