Atherwood Elementary, Simi Valley CA

Original Research by School Decision on Atherwood Elementary

Atherwood Elementary sits on East Greensward Street in Simi Valley, a mature, car-oriented suburb in Ventura County where residential subdivisions stretch across the valley floor and daily life runs on driving rather than walking. The school serves kindergarten through sixth grade and is part of Simi Valley Unified, though parents should know that beginning with the current school year the district moved all sixth graders to middle school campuses districtwide. Atherwood still lists sixth grade in its enrollment, but families with a child approaching that transition should confirm directly with the school how the shift has been implemented on that campus.

The school draws a mid-sized elementary enrollment. White students form the largest group, Hispanic students the second largest, with smaller Asian and multiracial populations and very few Black students. A little over a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which puts Atherwood in the moderate range for economic need. Data on English learners and students with IEPs was not available in what was reported to us.

State assessment results from the most recent testing year come from the California CAASPP Smarter Balanced exams and the California Science Test, measured across third, fourth, and fifth grades. In math, third graders performed below half proficient, fourth graders crossed just above half, and fifth graders fell to roughly a third. English language arts followed a similar pattern: third grade came in below four in ten students meeting standard, fourth grade just under half, and fifth grade just above half. Science was tested in fifth grade only, with about four in ten reaching proficient. Taken together, across all tested grades and subjects, Atherwood's overall proficiency sits above the midpoint among districts in Ventura County, which is a real position worth noting. Still, across the board, fewer than half of students are meeting state standards in most grades and subjects, and parents who want to understand what the school is doing to move those numbers would be well served to ask directly.

Multi-year trend data is not available. Only one year of results was reported, so there is no trajectory to describe.

The housing market around Atherwood reflects Simi Valley broadly. Home values are well above the California statewide benchmark and dramatically above the national average, with only modest year-over-year softening. Rents are also high relative to income, with the rent-to-income burden running at a level that would strain a household near the national median. Affordability here is a real constraint. Simi Valley's housing pipeline is shifting toward infill and higher-density projects, including plans to redevelop the Town Center mall site into a large residential mixed-use development and add apartment projects near Tapo Street, so the neighborhood character around the school may evolve over the coming years.

At the district level, two changes are worth knowing. Simi Valley Unified launched a Spanish-English Dual Language Immersion academy at Arroyo Elementary in 2024-25, not at Atherwood, but it is designed as a pathway that will grow through middle and high school for interested families. Separately, the district is publicly exploring a facilities bond for the November 2026 ballot. Early polling showed support above the threshold required for passage, though residents are already paying off two prior bonds. Families buying into the area should factor in the possibility of an additional property tax obligation.

Atherwood has no program offerings listed in what was reported to us, and information on attendance, chronic absenteeism, and discipline was also absent from the data. A graduation rate does not apply here given the grade band the school serves.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 345%

School 45% · District 51% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 451%

School 51% · District 48% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

Grade 534%

School 34% · District 37% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 337%

School 37% · District 48% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 445%

School 45% · District 50% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

Grade 551%

School 51% · District 55% · ▼ 4 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 538%

School 38% · District 38%

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

This schoolSimi Valley 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 3Lower-income19%Higher-income51%32 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income41%Higher-income46%5 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income46%Higher-income53%7 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income31%Higher-income56%25 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income39%Higher-income55%17 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income29%Higher-income38%9 pp gap