Andrew Jackson Elementary, Selma CA

Original Research by School Decision on Andrew Jackson Elementary

Andrew Jackson Elementary sits on Huntsman Avenue in Selma, a Central Valley city in Fresno County, and serves children from kindergarten through sixth grade within Selma Unified. It is a conventional public school, not a charter or magnet program.

The school's enrollment is sizeable for a K-6 campus. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with smaller shares of white and Asian students. An overwhelming majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing the school firmly in a high-need economic category. Data on English learner rates and special education enrollment were not available in what was provided.

On the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, academic results tell a mixed story. In English language arts, third graders score at roughly the same level as fifth and sixth graders do, and the fifth-grade cohort's proficiency is notably the strongest across all tested grades in reading and writing. Math is more consistently a challenge: proficiency rates fall as students advance through the grades, and by sixth grade only a small fraction of students are meeting the state standard. Across all tested grades and subjects combined, the school's overall proficiency index sits just above the midpoint relative to districts in Fresno County, which is a meaningful anchor given how competitive that county set is. In fifth-grade science, tested via the California Science Test, roughly three in ten students met proficiency, a figure in line with the school's broader pattern. Parents who want to understand what the school is doing in response to these math numbers should ask directly, because trends across time are not available in the data here, making it hard to say whether results are improving, stable, or declining. The district did publicly roll out a new Illustrative Mathematics curriculum at the elementary level for the current school year, shifting toward a model that asks students to explain their reasoning rather than simply compute answers. Whether that change is already reflected in the 2024-25 scores, or whether its effects will take time to appear, is an open question.

Selma Unified has a few other district-level developments worth knowing. Voters approved a general obligation bond measure in 2022 to fund campus modernization; that debt is repaid through local property taxes, so families buying a home in the district are taking on that obligation as a routine part of homeownership there. The district has also built community school infrastructure, including family liaisons and a Family Resource Center, and is publicly reported to be preparing to open its first district-operated preschool, which would extend early learning options for residents before kindergarten age.

The local housing market is priced well below the California statewide median, and modestly below the national median as well. Rents are roughly comparable to mortgage costs in the area, so the buy-versus-rent calculation is closer than in many California markets. Home values have seen modest year-over-year appreciation. For a family moving into Fresno County from a more expensive part of the state, Selma's housing costs can be a practical draw.

Detailed locale data for Selma itself was not available from the research conducted, so specific information about walkability, major employers, or civic anchors could not be included.

Graduation rate does not apply to Andrew Jackson because it is a K-6 school; those outcomes belong to the secondary level. Chronic absenteeism data was also not available. Program details beyond the district's curriculum and community school investments were not provided in the data, so a parent curious about enrichment, intervention, or extended-learning offerings at the school specifically would want to ask the principal directly.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 337%

School 37% · District 30% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 426%

School 26% · District 25% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 525%

School 25% · District 20% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Grade 618%

School 18% · District 24% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 336%

School 36% · District 36%

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 424%

School 24% · District 30% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

Grade 551%

School 51% · District 42% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

Grade 647%

School 47% · District 39% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Science

Grade 531%

School 31% · District 22% · ▲ 9 pts above district

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

This schoolSelma 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 5Lower-income48%Higher-income75%28 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income22%Higher-income42%20 pp gap