Martin Elementary, Santa Ana CA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Martin Elementary

Martin Elementary sits in Santa Ana, Orange County's dense urban core, serving roughly five hundred students across kindergarten through fifth grade. The school is located on West Wilshire in a city that functions as the county seat and holds much of central Orange County's industrial and logistics footprint alongside historic residential neighborhoods and a downtown that anchors civic and commercial life.

The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with a substantial share of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. State testing data from the most recent school year shows proficiency in math and English language arts well below typical benchmarks. In math across third through fifth grades, proficiency hovers in the low range, with a particular dip in fifth grade. In English language arts, performance is somewhat stronger than in math, but still modest; fourth grade shows slightly higher gains than the surrounding grades. In science, fifth grade proficiency is notably low. Relative to other districts across Orange County, Martin's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile. The school has only one year of available test data, so trends cannot be assessed.

Santa Ana as a community is in an active growth and redevelopment phase, with new mixed-use projects, transit infrastructure, and housing construction reshaping the city. The downtown area is the civic center for city, county, state, and federal government, centered on Fourth Street, which supports retail, restaurants, galleries, and cultural activity. Broader neighborhoods vary widely in walkability; outlying residential areas are car-dependent. The city's median housing value and rental costs are high for the region, and the affordability picture is tight; rent absorbs a substantial portion of median household income.

Santa Ana Unified, the parent district, recently won voter approval for a large school facilities bond in November 2024 to repair and modernize aging schools, a commitment that affects local property taxes over a multi-year span. The district has been in the national spotlight around curriculum questions. It became an early adopter of ethnic studies as a graduation requirement in 2020 but agreed in 2025 to discontinue three contested high school ethnic studies courses and rebuild them with fresh public input after a legal settlement over allegations related to the curriculum's development and content.

For families considering Martin, the data points to a school serving a high-poverty, predominantly Hispanic community where academic proficiency on state measures is low and below the county norm. A parent may want to look into the school's in-class supports, interventions, and any supplemental programs the school or district offers to strengthen foundation skills. The city and district context is one of active change, growth pressure, and civic investment in school facilities, but also recent curriculum controversy that touched the broader district. The immediate neighborhood is urban, dense, and car-dependent, with modest walkability except toward downtown.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 324%

School 24% · District 26% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 32 pts below county median

Grade 429%

School 29% · District 25% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 522%

School 22% · District 22%

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 327%

School 27% · District 25% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

Grade 437%

School 37% · District 31% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 532%

School 32% · District 34% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 515%

School 15% · District 18% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

This schoolSanta Ana 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.