George C. Marshall Elementary, Seaside CA

Original Research by School Decision on George C. Marshall Elementary

George C. Marshall Elementary serves kindergarten through sixth grade in Seaside, a coastal city in Monterey County. The school is a regular public elementary school with an enrollment of roughly five hundred students. The student body is diverse: roughly one-third are Hispanic, one-third white, and the remainder Asian, Black, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, or multiracial. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on English learner populations and students with IEPs was not available.

On California's state assessments for 2024-25, the school's academic performance shows meaningful variability across grade levels and subjects. In English language arts, proficiency ranges from low twenties in grade five to roughly half of students in grades four and six. In mathematics, grade four students show the strongest proficiency at near half, while grade five is notably weaker at roughly one-fifth. Grade three math proficiency is near one-third, and grade six is roughly two-fifths. In the sciences, grade five proficiency on California's science test was low. Across all tested grades and subjects, the school's overall proficiency sits above the midpoint among districts in Monterey County, though this reflects a mixed picture: solid performance in some grade-subject pairs is offset by genuine soft spots elsewhere, particularly in grade five across both math and language arts. A parent may want to explore with the school what supports are in place for the grades where proficiency dips.

The immediate context is a district in transition. Monterey Peninsula Unified experienced a decade of enrollment decline that led to the closure of three schools by the end of 2022-2023 and the rezoning of more than a certain number of students into new attendance boundaries. Marshall serves an area that was not consolidated out. More recently, voters approved a major bond measure to fund facility upgrades, career technical education expansion, and staff housing—a signal of district investment in modernization and teacher retention, though this carries new property-tax implications for homeowners and renters. The district has also adopted new curricula: an English language arts program is now in all middle school classrooms, and K-2 dyslexia screening was added in 2025, reflecting classroom-level attention to early literacy.

Housing in the Seaside zip code is substantial; home values are in the range of most California coastal communities, and rental rates reflect the broader regional pressure. Median household income across the state is around eighty thousand dollars, though economic conditions vary locally. Unemployment remains modest.

Marshall is a neighborhood school serving an economically mixed population with meaningful academic needs. The grade-by-grade and subject-by-subject variation in test results suggests uneven progress and an opportunity for parents to ask how the school is addressing specific learning gaps, what support programs exist, and how the district's recent curriculum shifts may strengthen instruction over time.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 329%

School 29% · District 37% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

Grade 447%

School 47% · District 34% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

Grade 518%

School 18% · District 23% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

Grade 642%

School 42% · District 34% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 337%

School 37% · District 37%

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 451%

School 51% · District 36% · ▲ 15 pts above district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 23 pts above county median

Grade 527%

School 27% · District 39% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

Grade 649%

School 49% · District 44% · ▲ 5 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 521%

School 21% · District 27% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

This schoolMonterey Peninsula 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income34%Higher-income42%8 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income40%Higher-income61%21 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income24%Higher-income32%8 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income50%Higher-income48%2 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income21%Higher-income46%25 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income31%Higher-income61%29 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income13%Higher-income25%12 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income41%Higher-income44%3 pp gap