Magnolia Elementary, Riverside CA

Original Research by School Decision on Magnolia Elementary

Magnolia Elementary, a kindergarten-through-sixth-grade public school in Riverside, serves a student body that is predominantly Hispanic, with smaller shares of white students and other groups. Roughly half the enrollment qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, placing the school in a community with moderate economic need. The school is mid-sized for its grade span, with steady enrollment across grades.

Reading and language arts is the stronger academic area. Across all tested grades three through six, the school's overall English language arts proficiency sits in the top quartile relative to the county's other elementary schools. Performance climbs as students move through the upper grades, reaching its highest point in sixth grade. Math performance is more modest. Across grades three through six, overall math proficiency runs considerably lower than ELA. The school reports proficiency rates in math that range below the county median. Science proficiency, measured in fifth grade only, is also below midpoint. The gap between ELA and math performance suggests that reading and language foundations are stronger relative to numerical reasoning and problem-solving.

No trend data spanning multiple years is available, so it is unclear whether these performance levels represent stability, growth, or decline. State testing data also does not report proficiency breakdowns by demographic group, so a parent cannot see whether achievement gaps exist between student subgroups within the school.

Riverside Unified, the parent district, has undertaken a district-wide pedagogical shift centered on teacher coaching and four core learning concepts designed to remove barriers and identify struggling students earlier. The initiative has trained roughly one-third of the district's educators and is showing early reported gains in both English and math, though it is federally funded and scheduled to end in 2028. Whether this coaching framework has begun to touch Magnolia specifically, or how long the school has participated, is not documented in available sources. The district also maintains an ethnic studies graduation requirement that survived a board challenge in late 2025 and predates California's statewide mandate. This requirement shapes curriculum and course planning at the high school level but does not directly affect Magnolia, which serves only through sixth grade.

Magnolia sits in a Riverside zip code where median home values are above the national benchmark but below California's state average. Monthly rent typically runs lower than estimated mortgage payment. The local unemployment rate is moderate, and median household income is above national levels, though housing costs remain high relative to area income. A parent considering this school should plan conversations with the school about how the district's instructional coaching and learning-barrier framework reaches this building, what specific math supports exist given the proficiency gap between ELA and math, and how the school identifies and serves students who are not yet meeting grade-level standards.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 346%

School 46% · District 42% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Grade 438%

School 38% · District 36% · ▲ 1 pts above district

even with state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 537%

School 37% · District 33% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

Grade 646%

School 46% · District 32% · ▲ 14 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 356%

School 56% · District 41% · ▲ 15 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

Grade 454%

School 54% · District 42% · ▲ 12 pts above district

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

Grade 560%

School 60% · District 46% · ▲ 15 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

Grade 670%

School 70% · District 48% · ▲ 22 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 28 pts above county median

Science

Grade 544%

School 44% · District 31% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

This schoolRiverside 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-income48%Higher-income80%32 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income46%Higher-income87%41 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income59%Higher-income64%5 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income62%Higher-income91%29 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income38%Higher-income73%36 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income30%Higher-income67%37 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income32%Higher-income57%25 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income40%Higher-income62%22 pp gap