The top reported proficiency rate is 59% in Math. The lowest is 51% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Jose Antonio Vargas Elementary
Jose Antonio Vargas Elementary sits on North Whisman Road in Mountain View, California, serving kindergarten through fifth grade as part of the Mountain View Whisman School District. The school draws from a neighborhood that sits squarely in the East Whisman area, which is itself at the center of some of the most active rezoning and housing construction in the city right now.
Mountain View is a dense, tech-driven city in the heart of Silicon Valley. Google, Intuit, and other major employers anchor its economy. The downtown core along Castro Street has a walkable, active character, with farmers markets, dining, and performing arts close to a Caltrain and light rail intermodal hub. Neighborhoods farther from downtown, including the North Whisman corridor where the school sits, are more commercial in feel. The city is under a state mandate to add a substantial number of new homes over the next several years, and large-scale residential projects are either approved or in planning nearby. Families considering this area should understand that the neighborhood around the school will likely change meaningfully over the next decade.
Housing costs here are among the highest in the country. Home values are well above the California statewide median and vastly above the national median. Rents, while lower than ownership costs, are also exceptionally high. The gap between renting and owning costs here is wide, and the rent-to-income burden is steep by any standard.
On California's statewide CAASPP assessments, Vargas Elementary shows proficiency results that place it above the midpoint among districts in Santa Clara County, which is the comparison set available for this school. That is a meaningful position in a county with a very wide range of school performance. In English language arts, proficiency rates across the tested grades cluster in the mid-to-upper fifties and low sixties, with fourth grade showing the strongest result. Math follows a similar pattern, with fourth grade again the high point and third and fifth grades somewhat closer together at a level roughly in the mid-fifties. Science, tested at fifth grade, comes in just above half of students reaching proficiency. These results are, on the whole, solid for California, though a parent looking for consistently high proficiency should weigh them carefully. Trend data was available for only a single school year, so it is not possible to characterize whether performance is moving up or down over time.
The school's enrollment is in a moderate size range for an elementary school of its grade band. The student body is racially diverse: Hispanic and Asian students each represent roughly a quarter to a third of enrollment, white students make up a meaningful share, and multiracial students add further breadth. A quarter of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is a relatively modest share by California standards. Data on English learner enrollment and students with IEPs was not available in the data provided.
The one program listed is music. No additional enrichment, dual-language, or specialty programming was reported in the data, and details beyond what is listed here would need to come from the school directly.
The district picture matters for families at Vargas. Mountain View Whisman recently approved a substantial round of budget cuts for the coming school year, eliminating staff positions, reducing custodial services, and trimming district office personnel. The primary driver is stagnating local property tax revenue, which is the district's main funding source. At the same time, a facilities bond that voters passed in 2020 is funding campus security, new classroom space, solar panels, and teacher and staff housing, so capital investment is ongoing even as operating budgets tighten. On the instructional side, the district adopted a new elementary literacy curriculum grounded in the science of reading in 2024 and is mid-process on a multi-year math curriculum review, with pilot programs underway and full implementation targeted for 2027-28. Parents may want to ask the school how these curriculum transitions are unfolding in classrooms and what staffing changes, if any, have affected programs at this specific campus.
See more original research from School Decision →