Berylwood Elementary, Simi Valley CA

Original Research by School Decision on Berylwood Elementary

Berylwood Elementary serves students from kindergarten through sixth grade in Simi Valley, a mature suburban community in eastern Ventura County. The school enrolls a small cohort of around that size for its grade band, with a student body that is predominantly Latino and economically disadvantaged. About four-fifths of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the enrollment skews heavily toward younger grades, with the largest cohorts in kindergarten and fourth and first grades.

Simi Valley itself is a residential bedroom community built largely since the 1960s around master-planned subdivisions. The city lacks a walkable downtown or transit-rich corridors; daily life is car-dependent, though the Metrolink station provides commuter rail access to Los Angeles County and beyond. The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library is a major civic anchor, and the city has been working through planning efforts to add walkability and mixed-use development along Los Angeles Avenue and Tapo Street. The housing market is mid-priced, with home values and rents both experiencing slight year-over-year declines. The local economy centers on health care, manufacturing including aerospace firms, and retail. Population has been essentially flat in recent years, and growth going forward will rely on infill and denser housing rather than suburban expansion.

Academically, Berylwood's recent state testing results show performance well below state proficiency standards. Across tested grades and subjects, students are meeting standards at rates that place the school in the bottom quartile relative to other tested schools in Ventura County. In math, proficiency ranges from low teens to about a third, dropping notably in the upper elementary grades. English language arts results are similarly modest, with proficiency in the low to mid-thirties at best. Science proficiency in fifth grade sits at around a fifth of students. These numbers reflect a school serving a student population with substantial economic and language barriers, and a parent considering Berylwood should look closely at what intervention and support structures the school has in place to help students move toward proficiency. No trend data spanning multiple years was available, so the direction of progress cannot be determined from available data.

Structurally, the district made a significant change in 2024-25 when all sixth graders moved from elementary to middle school campuses, ending a longstanding option some families had valued. The district has also launched a new Dual Language Immersion program in Spanish and English starting at Arroyo Elementary, a different school, though Berylwood itself remains a traditional elementary program.

Simi Valley Unified is preparing a new school facilities bond for a November 2026 ballot vote. This would add to property tax obligations for families already paying off two existing bonds. A recent feasibility survey indicated community support above the threshold needed to pass, so families relocating to the area should expect this potential change.

For families seeking a small, neighborhood elementary school in a residential suburban setting with a Latino-serving mission and a high rate of economic need, Berylwood represents that context. The academic performance data suggests that attending here requires careful attention to what supplemental help and intervention a family can access, whether through the school's programs or through private tutoring or after-school support.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 334%

School 34% · District 51% · ▼ 17 pts below district

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

Grade 419%

School 19% · District 48% · ▼ 29 pts below district

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

Grade 511%

School 11% · District 37% · ▼ 26 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 325%

School 25% · District 48% · ▼ 23 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 421%

School 21% · District 50% · ▼ 29 pts below district

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

Grade 537%

School 37% · District 55% · ▼ 17 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 521%

School 21% · District 38% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below 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-income29%Higher-income8%20 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income38%Higher-income33%5 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income40%Higher-income8%32 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income21%Higher-income9%12 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income9%Higher-income23%14 pp gap