The top reported proficiency rate is 39% in Social studies. The lowest is 5% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Costano Elementary
Costano Elementary sits on Fordham Street in East Palo Alto, serving kindergarten through fifth grade as part of the Ravenswood City Elementary district. The school draws from one of the most economically pressured communities on the San Francisco Peninsula, a place where housing costs have reached extraordinary levels relative to local incomes, yet where a large majority of Costano's own students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with a substantial Pacific Islander population and smaller Black and white shares. English learner counts were not available in the data provided, which is a gap worth asking the school about directly given the community's demographics.
Academic performance, as measured by California's CAASPP assessments in the most recent school year, is low across all tested grades and subjects. In reading and language arts, the fractions of third, fourth, and fifth graders reaching proficiency were each well below a quarter, and in math the picture is starker still, with fourth and fifth grade results in the single digits. Fifth grade science, assessed through the California Science Test, showed similarly low proficiency. Placed against districts in San Mateo County, Costano's overall proficiency index lands in the bottom quartile of the comparison set. These are hard numbers, and a parent should weigh them seriously. Because only one year of comparable data is available, trend direction cannot be established, so it is worth asking the school and district what interventions are in place and whether internal progress measures show movement.
The school absorbed students from nearby Brentwood Academy after the district consolidated two of its five elementary schools, a decision driven by years of declining enrollment and a budget gap. That consolidation eliminated walkable neighborhood schools for many families and moved most students to buses. A more abrupt change is now arriving: a tuition-free private school in East Palo Alto founded by the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative announced it is closing, pushing a large cohort of students into the Ravenswood district. Publicly reported accounts indicate the district considers the funding commitment from the initiative insufficient to upgrade and expand facilities to handle the enrollment increase. Whether that pressure lands specifically on Costano or elsewhere in the district, a family enrolling now should ask directly about classroom conditions and capacity. A bond measure is also on the ballot to fund facility upgrades, including replacing portable buildings, paid through a property tax increment over a multi-year span.
East Palo Alto itself is a city in genuine transition. The housing market is striking: home values in the zip code are several times the California state median and vastly above the national median, making ownership inaccessible on most local wages. Rents have risen sharply in recent months as well, with a rent-to-income burden that the data characterizes as very high relative to national norms. Much of the existing housing stock consists of older apartments and single-family homes, some of them rent-controlled, concentrated west of the highway. A large residential redevelopment in the Woodland Park neighborhood was approved in recent years, with a pledge of no displacement of current tenants and a deed-restricted affordable share; additional projects from the same developer are in early stages as of 2026. A separate affordable housing development near the library is also advancing. The city approved a major new business district plan in late 2024 that envisions substantial office, industrial, and residential growth, along with a new walkable commercial corridor along Bay Road that does not yet exist in a developed form.
Walkability around Costano and across much of East Palo Alto is constrained. Large portions of the city lack sidewalks, and the highway that bisects the city creates a real barrier to movement. The city is working on pedestrian improvements, and the Ravenswood Bay Trail, which opened in 2020, offers a continuous off-street path along the bayfront. Parks, the public library at University and Bay Road, and SamTrans bus service including an express route to BART are the main civic anchors.
Program information for Costano specifically was not available in the data, so the range of enrichment, intervention supports, or special programming offered on campus is not something this account can characterize. That is another direct question worth putting to the school.
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