Alcott Elementary, San Diego CA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Alcott Elementary

Alcott Elementary is a small public school in the 92117 zip code of San Diego, serving about two hundred students across kindergarten through fifth grade. The enrollment skews toward slightly older kindergarteners and fifth graders, with a notably large kindergarten cohort relative to the grades above it.

The school's student body is roughly evenly divided between Hispanic and white students, with a small representation of Asian and multiracial students. About half the student population qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a working-class and lower-middle-class base with some economic strain.

On California's 2024-25 assessments, Alcott's proficiency rates are mixed. In English language arts, the school achieved around four in ten students proficient when averaging across third, fourth, and fifth grades, though this masks a concerning drop in fourth grade, where proficiency fell below a third of students before rebounding somewhat in fifth grade. Math results are slightly stronger and more consistent across grades, with fewer than half of students proficient in third and fourth grade, improving to about half in fifth grade. In science, assessed only in fifth grade, about three in ten students met proficiency standards. Only one year of data is available, so trends cannot be assessed. The school's overall proficiency index places it above the midpoint among the county's elementary and all-schools comparators, a position reflecting modest but not strong performance relative to San Diego County schools.

The specific instructional gaps in fourth-grade English and the lower science results warrant conversation with the school about what supports exist for struggling readers and how science instruction is resourced. Without multi-year data, it is not clear whether these are stable patterns or anomalies. A parent may want to ask the school directly about intervention structures and staff capacity in reading instruction and science.

San Diego Unified, the district housing this school, recently implemented standards-based grading at the secondary level, removing non-academic factors like late work from academic grades and placing those into a separate citizenship grade. While this applies to grades six and up, families with younger children in the district may see its effects as their students advance. The district also approved Measure U in late 2022, a long-term facilities and infrastructure commitment funded by extending a property tax rate rather than raising it, covering repairs, security upgrades, technology, and transitional kindergarten facilities.

The 92117 zip code in which Alcott sits is part of a substantial real estate market, with median home values in the mid-seven figures and monthly rental costs in the mid-two-thousands. This reflects a relatively affluent regional context, though that affluence is not uniformly distributed across neighborhoods or families within the school's attendance area. Unemployment in the region is low, and median household income is in the mid-five figures.

The school's small size means that facilities and individual relationships are likely direct and accessible, though less curricular depth and after-school programming may be available than at larger elementary schools. For families seeking a neighborhood school in this part of San Diego with modest academic performance and a mixed-income, multiethnic student body, Alcott offers a nearby option that merits site visit and conversation with staff about reading supports and instructional priorities.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 348%

School 48% · District 55% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▲ 5 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 449%

School 49% · District 50% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Grade 552%

School 52% · District 45% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 357%

School 57% · District 53% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Grade 430%

School 30% · District 54% · ▼ 24 pts below district

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

Grade 561%

School 61% · District 58% · ▲ 3 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 530%

School 30% · District 42% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

This schoolSan Diego 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 4Lower-income32%Higher-income29%3 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income46%Higher-income75%30 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income36%Higher-income58%22 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income47%Higher-income50%3 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income46%Higher-income58%13 pp gap