Roosevelt Elementary, Lindsay CA

Original Research by School Decision on Roosevelt Elementary

Roosevelt Elementary serves kindergarten through eighth grade in Lindsay, a small Tulare County city rooted in citrus agriculture. The school enrolls a student body that is overwhelmingly Hispanic and economically stressed, with a substantial share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The neighborhood itself is compact and walkable, centered around a historic downtown with civic investments in parks, a new library, and recreation facilities.

The most pressing reality at Roosevelt is academic performance. Across California's state assessments in English language arts and math, proficiency rates are low. In math, students in the lower grades (third through fifth) show proficiency in the low- to mid-teens range. Performance improves moderately in the upper grades, with seventh grade reaching the high-40s in both subjects and eighth grade hitting the low-50s in English language arts. That upper-grade improvement suggests some students are catching ground by the end of middle school, but the wider pattern is one of struggling foundational skills. Science proficiency, where tested, sits in the low- to mid-teens. Taken together, these results place the school below the midpoint for proficiency across districts in Tulare County.

This academic profile likely reflects both the economic constraints families face and the learning gaps that accumulate early. Parents should understand that Roosevelt is a school where most students are playing catch-up, and where intervention and support in reading and math fundamentals matter enormously. A parent considering this school may want to look directly into what specific literacy and numeracy supports the school offers, especially in grades three through five where early skills gaps become most visible.

The district itself is actively modernizing. Lindsay Unified has recently opened universal preschool to all children from birth through age four regardless of family income, a structural addition that matters if younger siblings will follow. The district is also replacing portable classrooms with permanent buildings equipped with improved heating, ventilation, and insulation, a quality-of-life change for students. In recent years the district has added project-based learning alongside its longer-standing competency-based approach, meaning students increasingly work on real-world, hands-on projects alongside traditional instruction. These are meaningful shifts, though they unfold at the district level; how they shape day-to-day work in Roosevelt specifically would be worth asking about directly.

Housing in the Lindsay area is relatively affordable compared to California coastal regions, and the town itself is experiencing modest growth, with new subdivisions and infrastructure investment in the downtown core. For families already living in or considering the Lindsay area, Roosevelt is the neighborhood K-8 option, but families should be clear-eyed about where the school stands academically and what support structures exist for students working significantly below grade level.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 317%

School 17% · District 38% · ▼ 21 pts below district

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

Grade 421%

School 21% · District 32% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 515%

School 15% · District 24% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 628%

School 28% · District 24% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 746%

School 46% · District 40% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

Grade 841%

School 41% · District 36% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 324%

School 24% · District 37% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

Grade 424%

School 24% · District 31% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

Grade 521%

School 21% · District 33% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 634%

School 34% · District 36% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 746%

School 46% · District 51% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 853%

School 53% · District 48% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

Science

Grade 517%

School 17% · District 23% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 817%

School 17% · District 20% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 834%

School 34% · District 21% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

This schoolLindsay Unified, 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.