Searles Elementary, Union City CA

Original Research by School Decision on Searles Elementary

Searles Elementary sits on 15th Street in Union City, a mid-sized Bay Area suburb in Alameda County that is notably diverse and predominantly residential in feel, though it also carries a substantial industrial and warehouse employment base. The city is organized less around a traditional downtown than around a transit-oriented Station District built up near the Union City BART stop, with civic amenities including parks, a library, a farmers market, and recreation centers spread across neighborhoods. The area is car-oriented by design, though nodes near the BART station and a few commercial corridors are walkable. Housing near the school carries values well above both state and national medians, and the local rent burden is steep relative to income, reflecting the broader East Bay housing market.

Searles is a kindergarten through fifth grade regular public school in the New Haven Unified School District. The enrollment is on the larger side for a K-5 campus, with classes spread relatively evenly across grade levels. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing this among schools serving communities with substantial economic need. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with a meaningful share of Asian students and smaller representations of other groups. English learner counts and IEP rates were not available in the data provided, which is worth asking the school about directly, particularly for families whose children may need language or special education supports.

On the most recent California state assessments, proficiency rates across reading, math, and science are low and sit below the midpoint relative to districts in Alameda County. In reading, third graders show weaker results than fourth and fifth graders, where scores improve somewhat through the upper elementary years, with fifth grade reading approaching the mid-forties in proficiency. Math results are more uniformly low across all three tested grades, with fourth grade showing the weakest performance. Fifth grade science results fall in a similar range. These are the most recent numbers available, from the 2024-25 school year, and only a single year of data is on hand, so trend direction cannot be determined. Parents who want to understand whether scores have been moving and what the school is doing to respond should ask those questions directly.

No information on chronic absenteeism, discipline rates, staffing levels, or course access was available in the data. The district brief turned up little in the way of confirmed recent parent-relevant changes, such as new curriculum adoptions or budget developments, so that context is largely absent here.

What Searles offers is a neighborhood elementary school in a genuinely diverse, working community. The demographics of the school reflect Union City itself, a city publicly reported to take pride in its ethnic and economic mix, with roots in South Asian, Latino, and multiracial communities across its neighborhoods. The school's size means a relatively broad peer group from the earliest grades. For families drawn to that kind of community fit, Searles reflects it directly.

The academic picture, as the state data shows it, is one where most tested students are not yet reaching proficiency benchmarks, and the gap between current performance and the county midpoint is real. A parent weighing this school should look into what specific instructional supports are in place for students who are below grade level, how the school communicates academic progress, and what the plan is for students who need additional time to reach proficiency before they exit fifth grade. Those are the practical questions the data raises without answering.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 326%

School 26% · District 49% · ▼ 23 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 29 pts below county median

Grade 419%

School 19% · District 45% · ▼ 26 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 31 pts below county median

Grade 528%

School 28% · District 39% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 323%

School 23% · District 49% · ▼ 26 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 27 pts below county median

Grade 437%

School 37% · District 53% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 544%

School 44% · District 52% · ▼ 7 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 528%

School 28% · District 37% · ▼ 9 pts below district

even with state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

This schoolNew Haven 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-income15%Higher-income40%25 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income37%Higher-income35%2 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income42%Higher-income52%10 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income17%Higher-income46%29 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income17%Higher-income29%12 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income22%Higher-income46%25 pp gap