Cedarwood Elementary, Magalia CA

Original Research by School Decision on Cedarwood Elementary

Cedarwood Elementary sits in Magalia, a quiet residential community of wooded parcels in the Sierra Nevada foothills, where car dependence is complete and shopping happens along a single corridor, the Skyway. The school serves kindergarten through sixth grade and draws students almost entirely from the immediate area. About four-fifths of the enrollment comes from families qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, a measure of economic strain; the student body is predominantly white, with smaller shares of Hispanic students and multiracial students.

The school is small, with around two hundred fifty students spread across seven grades, making for classes that are typically modest in size. It is a regular public school, not a charter, and operates as part of Paradise Unified School District, headquartered in neighboring Paradise about five miles south. The district has seen sharp population decline and rebuilding pressures following the Camp Fire in the region, though some population growth has resumed since 2020. Magalia itself remains in recovery, with rebuilding continuing slowly on the Upper Ridge Community Plan framework and a new affordable housing complex now under way.

Assessment results reveal a substantive academic challenge. In the most recent testing year, overall proficiency in math and English language arts was low: less than a quarter of students met state standards in either subject when results were combined across tested grades. Performance varied by grade, with third grade showing stronger relative results in math, while fifth grade showed the steepest declines in both subjects. Science testing was administered only in fifth grade and recorded no proficiency. The school reported a single year of data, so growth trends cannot yet be assessed. When compared to other schools across the district universe of Butte County, Cedarwood's overall proficiency index placed it in the bottom quartile among schools for which county data was available.

The data does not provide information on chronic absenteeism, attendance patterns, discipline, course breadth, or staffing levels. Special education enrollment counts and English learner counts were not reported. Proficiency rates by demographic group within the school were also unavailable, so a parent would want to check directly with the school about how performance distributes across student populations and what targeted support systems are in place, especially given the economic context of the families served.

Housing in the Magalia area is affordable relative to state benchmarks, with home values and monthly housing costs below state and national medians, though home values have ticked down slightly year over year. Families choosing Magalia tend to value privacy, forested surroundings, and rural character over walkability or urban amenities; the trade-off is dependence on vehicle travel to reach schools, services, and employment beyond the immediate area. The community center and scattered Skyway businesses provide local gathering space, and transit service via Butte Regional Transit connects Magalia to Paradise and Chico, with on-demand service added recently.

For families moving to or already in Magalia, Cedarwood is the obvious elementary choice for kindergarten through sixth grade. The open questions are what teaching and support strategies the school is employing to address the proficiency gaps evident in the test results, whether specialized programs exist for students needing acceleration or intervention, and what parent involvement looks like. A conversation with the school about its academic priorities and recent changes would help ground that picture.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 341%

School 41% · District 48% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

Grade 421%

School 21% · District 28% · ▼ 7 pts below district

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

Grade 58%

School 8% · District 25% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 629%

School 29% · District 24% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 332%

School 32% · District 38% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

Grade 424%

School 24% · District 32% · ▼ 7 pts below district

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

Grade 514%

School 14% · District 33% · ▼ 19 pts below district

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

Grade 624%

School 24% · District 24% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 31% · ▼ 31 pts below district

▼ 28 pts below state median · ▼ 35 pts below county median

This schoolParadise 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.