The top reported proficiency rate is 26% in English language arts. The lowest is 14% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Thomas Kelly Elementary
Thomas Kelly Elementary sits on Moraga Drive in Carmichael, a mature, largely built-out suburban community in northeastern Sacramento County. Carmichael is unincorporated, meaning it has no city government of its own, and its character comes through in the housing stock: mid-century ranch homes on generous lots, mature trees, and a quieter residential feel that neighborhood groups have worked to preserve. Commercial life runs along Fair Oaks Boulevard rather than gathering into any walkable downtown. Civic anchors include the American River Parkway and Ancil Hoffman Park nearby, a Sacramento Public Library branch on Marconi Avenue, and an extensive parks district. The area is largely car-dependent, though walkability varies by exact address.
The school draws from San Juan Unified, one of the larger district operations in Sacramento County. Families considering a home purchase here should know that voters approved a substantial general obligation bond in late 2024, which will appear on property tax bills through the middle of the century; the funds are directed at facilities modernization across the district's aging campuses. The district also adopted a five-year strategic plan in 2024 with early literacy and third-through-eighth-grade math named as priority areas, and a new TK through eighth-grade math curriculum was moving toward board approval in spring 2026.
Thomas Kelly's enrollment is in the range typical for an elementary school of its grade span, serving kindergarten through fifth grade. Roughly three in five students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places the school in a meaningfully high-need context. The student body is majority white, with Hispanic students making up roughly a quarter of enrollment, and the remaining students spread across Black, multiracial, Asian, and other groups. Data on English learner rates and the share of students with individualized education programs were not available in what was provided.
The school's state assessment results, reported on California's CAASPP and CAST assessments for the most recent year available, are a serious concern a parent should weigh carefully. Across tested grades in English language arts, proficiency ranges from quite low in third grade to around four in ten fourth graders meeting or exceeding standards, falling back sharply in fifth grade. Math results are more uniformly low, with third and fifth grade proficiency in the single digits and fourth grade reaching roughly a third of students. Fifth-grade science proficiency on the CAST sits below one in five students. Taken together, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile relative to districts in Sacramento County. Only one year of data is available here, so no trend can be calculated, but the numbers as reported are well below both the county median and California statewide averages. The district's stated strategic emphasis on early literacy and math, along with the new math curriculum coming into classrooms, may be relevant context, but parents who want to understand what supports are in place at Thomas Kelly specifically would do well to ask the school directly.
On the housing side, the zip code serving this part of Carmichael carries home values well above the national midpoint but noticeably below the California statewide median, which positions it as a relative value within the California market even if it remains a stretch by national standards. Values have been essentially flat year over year. Rents have ticked up modestly. The estimated monthly carrying cost of ownership at current mortgage rates is substantial, and the price-to-income ratio suggests this is not an affordable market in any conventional sense, though it is considerably more accessible than coastal California.
Program information for Thomas Kelly was not available in the data provided, so what the school offers beyond the core curriculum in terms of enrichment, support services, or extracurriculars is a gap a parent would want to fill by contacting the school directly.
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