Porter Elementary, San Diego CA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Porter Elementary

Porter Elementary serves kindergarten through fifth grade in San Diego, with an enrollment of about six hundred fifty students. The school population is predominantly Hispanic and Black, with a substantial majority of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. This composition and the school's very high poverty rate reflect the socioeconomic conditions of its neighborhood on San Diego's east side.

State test results from the most recent available year show proficiency rates well below state benchmarks in both English language arts and math. In English language arts across tested grades, overall proficiency sits in the bottom quartile when compared to elementary schools in San Diego County. Math proficiency is similarly low. In science, the single grade tested (fifth) shows only single-digit proficiency. Grade-level variance is notable; third grade shows somewhat higher performance in ELA than fourth, which performs at the lowest levels in math. Fifth grade improves in ELA but remains very low in math and science. A parent may want to look into the school's instructional strategies and any targeted support programs with school leadership to understand how the school is addressing these patterns and what interventions are in place for students below grade level.

The school is part of San Diego Unified, a large urban district that has undertaken several systemic changes in recent years. The district adopted standards-based grading in secondary grades, eliminating factors like late submission from the academic grade and giving students chances to revise and reassess. In 2022, voters approved a major bond measure for facilities upgrades, repairs, and technology investment. The district also made ethnic studies a high school graduation requirement. These are context-level shifts that affect the whole district, though this elementary school would not yet see the ethnic studies or secondary grading changes directly.

The neighborhood around Porter Elementary, in the 92113 zip code, is an established residential area in southeast San Diego. Home values in the zip are moderate relative to San Diego County, and rental costs reflect strong demand. The housing market has tightened somewhat in recent quarters. Families in the area face significant economic pressure; median household income in the county sits well below California's state average, and the cost of renting is high relative to income.

Porter Elementary is a regular public school with no magnet or charter designation. The school serves an early elementary grade band where state testing is limited to grades three through five, so a reader sees test data only for those grades. Kindergarten and first grade have no state assessments; their academic progress would be tracked through classroom-based measures the school uses internally. The absence of a graduation rate is expected, as this is an elementary school.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 313%

School 13% · District 55% · ▼ 42 pts below district

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

Grade 44%

School 4% · District 50% · ▼ 46 pts below district

▼ 33 pts below state median · ▼ 38 pts below county median

Grade 516%

School 16% · District 45% · ▼ 29 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 322%

School 22% · District 53% · ▼ 31 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

Grade 412%

School 12% · District 54% · ▼ 42 pts below district

▼ 30 pts below state median · ▼ 37 pts below county median

Grade 527%

School 27% · District 58% · ▼ 31 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 26 pts below county median

Science

Grade 59%

School 9% · District 42% · ▼ 33 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 26 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.