Garden Grove Elementary, Simi Valley CA

Original Research by School Decision on Garden Grove Elementary

Garden Grove Elementary is a small elementary school in Simi Valley serving kindergarten through sixth grade, with an enrollment distributed fairly evenly across the grades. About half of the school's students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting a mixed-income student body. The student population is predominantly Hispanic, with a substantial white population and smaller Asian, Black, and multiracial groups. The school sits in a suburban residential neighborhood anchored by master-planned communities that have matured since the 1960s, in a city that functions primarily as a bedroom community for the Los Angeles area.

On state assessments, Garden Grove's results show modest proficiency across tested grades and subjects. In English language arts, students in third and fourth grade show proficiency in the low-to-mid range, while fifth grade performs noticeably stronger. Math proficiency is mixed, with fourth grade performing notably lower than third and fifth grades. Science results from the single tested grade, fifth, show proficiency around the low end of the range. Across all tested grades and subjects, the school's overall proficiency sits above the median among elementary schools in Ventura County, though anchored by some particularly low results in math in the fourth grade. Proficiency data from only the current school year is available, so trends over time cannot be assessed.

The school is part of Simi Valley Unified, a district that recently made two structural changes families with young children should know. Beginning in the 2024-25 school year, all sixth graders moved to middle school campuses, ending a long-standing option to keep sixth grade at the elementary campus. For a family with a fifth grader at Garden Grove, this means their child will transition to middle school rather than spend sixth grade at their current building. Second, the district launched a Dual Language Immersion program (Spanish and English) at Arroyo Elementary in 2024-25, which is expanding grade-by-grade and represents a new bilingual pathway not offered at Garden Grove.

Simi Valley is a car-oriented suburb with sidewalk-lined residential neighborhoods but no walkable downtown core. The community is anchored by a Civic Center that groups public facilities together, and residents commute to Los Angeles County for work. Housing costs in the area are substantial, with median home values well above the state average and rents moderately above the national benchmark. The city is mature with limited vacant land, and future growth is planned through infill development and denser housing projects rather than new subdivisions. A parent weighing Garden Grove should consider both its modest academic results on state tests and its location in a well-established suburban setting where neighborhood schools serve dispersed residential populations rather than clustering near a town center.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 348%

School 48% · District 51% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

Grade 425%

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

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

Grade 549%

School 49% · District 37% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 19 pts above state median · ▲ 22 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 348%

School 48% · District 48%

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

Grade 444%

School 44% · District 50% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▲ 2 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 558%

School 58% · District 55% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

Science

Grade 535%

School 35% · District 38% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 7 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 5Lower-income43%Higher-income80%37 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income29%Higher-income80%51 pp gap