Melinda Heights Elementary, Rancho Santa Margarita CA

Original Research by School Decision on Melinda Heights Elementary

Melinda Heights Elementary is a kindergarten-through-sixth-grade school in Rancho Santa Margarita serving a student body of roughly a thousand. The school is part of Saddleback Valley Unified, a district now managing enrollment decline and consolidation pressures, including the recent closure of an under-enrolled elementary campus in a neighboring community.

The student population is diverse by race and ethnicity, with about half the students identifying as white, a substantial share identifying as Hispanic, a notable Asian population, and smaller numbers of students of other backgrounds. About a quarter of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, placing Melinda Heights in a community that skews middle to upper-middle class but with meaningful economic variation.

On the most recent state assessments, the school's performance is mixed. In English language arts across grades three through six, proficiency rates range from around half of students in grade four to a stronger showing in grades five and six, where roughly two-thirds demonstrate proficiency. Math shows more consistency, with proficiency hovering around three-fifths across the grade band, and slightly stronger in grade three. In fifth-grade science, just over half of students met proficiency. Across tested subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency index places it above the midpoint among the public elementary schools in Orange County. Trend data for this year alone are not available, so year-to-year movement cannot be assessed from the data on hand.

Rancho Santa Margarita itself is a planned master-community in the foothills south of Mission Viejo, heavily residential and affluent, with most neighborhoods governed by homeowners associations. The town center concentrates civic amenities around a man-made lake and public parks, while shopping is distributed across Mediterranean-style plazas anchored by national retailers. The housing market here is expensive: median home values are substantially above both the state and national average, and monthly rents for a typical unit are also well above state and national benchmarks. Mortgage rates and affordability gaps make housing costly relative to household income. Most residents commute to jobs outside the city, with professional and technical services, health care, and retail as the leading employment sectors for those living here. Local employment is anchored by medical device manufacturing.

The city is largely built out, with growth now concentrated in accessory dwelling units and state-mandated housing element planning. Schools serve the community from dispersed neighborhood campuses rather than a single downtown core, and high schools serving Rancho Santa Margarita students are located in Mission Viejo rather than within the city. The broader Saddleback Valley district is under enrollment pressure: families may want to note that the district recently closed a campus and is evaluating additional under-enrolled schools as part of ongoing consolidation strategy. Additionally, voters rejected a school facilities bond in 2020, so older campuses in the district have not received modernization funding from a recent property-tax measure.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 363%

School 63% · District 58% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 458%

School 58% · District 56% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 558%

School 58% · District 52% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

Grade 661%

School 61% · District 54% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 30 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 354%

School 54% · District 54%

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 449%

School 49% · District 55% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 566%

School 66% · District 61% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 664%

School 64% · District 63%

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

Science

Grade 551%

School 51% · District 48% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

This schoolSaddleback Valley 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-income38%Higher-income60%22 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income40%Higher-income53%13 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income41%Higher-income73%32 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income49%Higher-income70%21 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income55%Higher-income66%11 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income42%Higher-income65%23 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income32%Higher-income66%34 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income45%Higher-income68%23 pp gap