Indian Creek Elementary, Placerville CA

Original Research by School Decision on Indian Creek Elementary

Indian Creek Elementary serves kindergarten through fourth grade in Placerville, a Gold Rush-era foothill town that serves as the El Dorado County seat. The school sits in a community anchored by a preserved 19th-century downtown with mixed residential neighborhoods, county government, and healthcare as dominant employers. Housing values in the area are moderate relative to California, with families paying attention to both homeownership and rental affordability.

The school enrolls a mid-sized cohort across its five grade bands. Just over half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a community with mixed economic circumstances. The student body is predominantly white, with a substantial Hispanic population and smaller representation from other racial and ethnic groups. The school does not report rates for English learners or students with IEPs, so the extent of special education services or English language support cannot be assessed from the available data.

Academic performance on California's state assessments shows a school working below proficiency benchmarks across both English language arts and mathematics. In third grade, roughly two in five students reached proficiency in ELA, and slightly fewer in math. Fourth grade results are lower, with fewer than two in five students proficient in ELA and fewer than one in three in math. These results sit above the midpoint of proficiency when compared against other districts in El Dorado County, a positioning that reflects the local context rather than statewide standing. The school has adopted Inspire Science by McGraw-Hill Education as a district-wide science curriculum, a meaningful instructional choice that shapes how science is taught. Science data from an earlier state assessment showed stronger performance at the fifth-grade level, though that assessment is now retired and direct comparison to current results is not possible.

The school has only one year of comparable current-year data, so trends cannot be identified. A parent may want to look into how the school is addressing the gaps in math proficiency, particularly in fourth grade, and what supports are available for students not yet meeting grade-level benchmarks. The school's size and grade span make it a neighborhood elementary serving a defined community; families should confirm transportation patterns and whether the school's schedule and programming align with their needs.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 341%

School 41% · District 39% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 429%

School 29% · District 29%

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 28 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 342%

School 42% · District 40% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 436%

School 36% · District 37% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 563%

School 63% · District 22% · ▲ 41 pts above district

▲ 35 pts above state median · ▲ 17 pts above county median

This schoolMother Lode Union 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income33%Higher-income52%18 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income34%Higher-income37%2 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income55%Higher-income79%24 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income33%Higher-income48%15 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income28%Higher-income29%1 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income48%Higher-income71%23 pp gap