Robertson Road Elementary, Modesto CA

Original Research by School Decision on Robertson Road Elementary

Robertson Road Elementary is a K-6 public school serving just over three hundred students in Modesto, a mid-sized Central Valley city anchored by food and beverage processing and agriculture. The school sits in a working-class neighborhood where nearly all students come from families qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, and the student body is predominantly Hispanic, with smaller shares of white, multiracial, Asian, and Black students.

Academic performance at Robertson Road is low by state standards. On California's 2024-25 state assessments in English language arts and math, proficiency rates across grades three through six ranged from the low twenties to around forty percent depending on grade and subject, with math proficiency for fourth and fifth graders landing at particularly low levels. In science, the single available result showed proficiency near one in five students. Compared to other districts across Stanislaus County, Robertson Road's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile, well below the county median. These results reflect genuine academic challenges that a parent would want to understand more deeply when considering the school.

The composition of Robertson Road's enrollment is steady across its grade bands, with kindergarten through sixth grade each serving cohorts of forty to fifty students. The school qualifies as Title I eligible given its student population, though the data does not include specific breakdowns of English learner enrollment or students with IEPs.

Modesto itself is a car-dependent city outside its walkable downtown grid, with civic anchors including parks, a public library system, and Stanislaus Regional Transit providing bus service. The median home value in the school's zip code sits at a moderate level relative to California as a whole, though housing is less affordable here than the national average when set against local incomes. The local economy centers on major employers in food processing and retail, including E. & J. Gallo Winery and Save Mart Supermarkets, alongside healthcare providers and distribution firms. The Modesto City Elementary District has recently invested in facility improvements through passed bonds, and adopted a new comprehensive sex education curriculum at the middle school level in 2024, a change families in the district engaged with during the approval process.

For families considering Robertson Road, the central question centers on academic support. The school serves a student population facing real economic challenge, and state test results show proficiency well below state norms. Parents should ask the school directly about its reading and math intervention strategies, the qualifications of teachers and specialists, class size, and any programs targeted at closing gaps for students arriving below grade level. The data does not indicate whether the school offers after-school or pull-out support services, or how intensively it tracks student progress through the year. A visit and conversation with school leadership would help clarify what instructional approach the school is taking and whether it matches what a family is looking for.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 340%

School 40% · District 32% · ▲ 8 pts above district

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

Grade 426%

School 26% · District 25% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 525%

School 25% · District 21% · ▲ 5 pts above district

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

Grade 629%

School 29% · District 23% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 329%

School 29% · District 29% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 421%

School 21% · District 31% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 532%

School 32% · District 35% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 638%

School 38% · District 37% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 519%

School 19% · District 17% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

This schoolModesto City 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.