Cerritos Elementary, Anaheim CA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Cerritos Elementary

Cerritos Elementary sits on a residential stretch of West Anaheim, a neighborhood that the city's own public reporting describes as predominantly Latino and working-class, with affordable housing relative to the rest of Orange County. The school is part of the Savanna Elementary School District, a small district covering kindergarten through sixth grade.

The student body is racially and ethnically mixed, with Hispanic students making up the largest group, followed by Asian and white students, with smaller numbers of Black and multiracial students. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places the school in a higher-need economic context. Data on English learner rates and special education enrollment were not available in what was provided.

On California's CAASPP state assessments in 2024-25, the school's results vary by subject and grade. Math proficiency is strongest in third grade and falls off noticeably in fifth and sixth grade. English language arts results are more compressed across grades, with a relative peak in sixth grade and lower rates in third and fifth. Science, tested at fifth grade through the California Science Test, comes in below the math and ELA figures for that same grade. Taken together, the school's overall proficiency index places it below the midpoint among districts in Orange County, the comparison set used here. There is only one year of data in the system, so no trend information is available yet; a parent who wants to understand whether results are improving, holding, or declining would need to ask the school directly.

The governance of Savanna Elementary School District changed recently in a way worth knowing. Publicly reported information indicates the board transitioned from at-large elections to by-trustee-area elections, with the shift completing in 2024. In practical terms, this means specific neighborhoods now have dedicated board seats rather than every seat being elected citywide, which can affect how families in a given part of the attendance zone see their interests represented. No confirmed bond measures or district-wide curriculum changes were found in the research available.

The broader community context is Anaheim, a large, diverse Orange County city where the character of individual neighborhoods diverges sharply. The area around the school is West Anaheim, which has a different feel from the affluent hillside communities of Anaheim Hills or the tourist-facing Anaheim Resort district around Disneyland. Housing costs in the zip code are well above both the state and national midpoints, with home values that represent a steep entry price even by California standards, and rents that consume a substantial share of median household income. The city is in an active development phase, with large mixed-use projects in the Platinum Triangle and the DisneylandForward expansion plan approved in 2024, though that growth is geographically concentrated in areas away from the school's neighborhood.

Because this is a K-6 school, there is no graduation rate to report. AP courses, dual-credit pathways, and high school career programs do not apply to this grade band. Chronic absenteeism data was not available.

For a family weighing this school, the academic picture is mixed. The third-grade math results are comparatively encouraging, but proficiency rates fall in the upper elementary grades, and science results at fifth grade are the weakest across all reported subjects. A parent would do well to ask the school what support structures exist for students who are not yet meeting grade-level standards, and what the trajectory looks like for the most recent entering cohorts.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 363%

School 63% · District 53% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 451%

School 51% · District 45% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

Grade 537%

School 37% · District 42% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 637%

School 37% · District 43% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 347%

School 47% · District 41% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 454%

School 54% · District 49% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 541%

School 41% · District 53% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

Grade 659%

School 59% · District 57% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 532%

School 32% · District 34% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

This schoolSavanna Elementary, 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-income44%Higher-income53%9 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income42%Higher-income77%35 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income33%Higher-income73%40 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income50%Higher-income79%29 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income62%Higher-income67%5 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income46%Higher-income62%15 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income28%Higher-income73%45 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income34%Higher-income43%9 pp gap