Kennedy Elementary, Stockton CA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Kennedy Elementary

Kennedy Elementary serves students from kindergarten through eighth grade in Stockton, a large inland city in California's San Joaquin Valley. The school sits in a mixed-use urban neighborhood with residential areas of varying density, neighborhood retail, and a downtown civic core. Stockton's economy centers on transportation and logistics, healthcare, agriculture, and education; Amazon and University of the Pacific are among the largest employers in the region. The city's housing market is described as normalizing after years of tight supply, with modest price appreciation and growing inventory, and affordability relative to the San Francisco Bay Area continues to draw commuters and homebuyers.

Kennedy's enrollment is small for its grade span, spread across nine grades with roughly balanced cohorts in most grades. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the school's location in an economically stretched community. The student body is racially and ethnically diverse: roughly half of students identify as Hispanic, with sizable populations of Asian, Black, and multi-racial students, and a small number of American Indian, Pacific Islander, and white students.

Academic performance across tested subjects and grades sits well below state proficiency benchmarks. In English language arts, proficiency rates across grades three through eight range from low to high-teens, with eighth grade at the top of that range. Math proficiency is notably lower across all tested grades, ranging from single digits in sixth and eighth grades to the low-to-mid twenties in third grade. Science testing, available only for fifth and eighth grades, shows similar challenges. These results place Kennedy in the bottom quartile among districts in San Joaquin County when compared by overall proficiency index. The most recent data comes from the 2024-25 school year, so there is only one year of results available and no multi-year trend information to assess improvement or decline.

Stockton Unified, Kennedy's parent district, has undertaken several changes that shape the school environment. The district adopted SIPPS, a structured-literacy reading program emphasizing phonological awareness, phonics, and sight words, across early grades; the district reports gains in early-grade reading proficiency since implementation. Beginning in 2025-26, the district implemented a new cell phone use policy limiting student access to smartphones during the school day. The district also approved Measure C, a general obligation bond, in November 2022; the first issuance occurred in 2025 and will fund facility acquisitions and improvements over time, financed through property taxes on district homeowners. The district's 2024-2027 Local Control Accountability Plan sets multiyear goals around academic achievement, support for students with disabilities, and creating positive learning conditions for Black students.

A parent may want to look into further with Kennedy how the school is using SIPPS in the early grades, what support structures exist for the grades where math proficiency is particularly low, and how the school is tracking progress against district goals. The low overall proficiency rates suggest students are facing significant academic challenges; understanding what interventions and additional support the school offers would help a family assess whether Kennedy's approach aligns with their child's needs.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 326%

School 26% · District 27% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 418%

School 18% · District 21% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

Grade 513%

School 13% · District 14% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 68%

School 8% · District 17% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 711%

School 11% · District 19% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

Grade 811%

School 11% · District 19% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 322%

School 22% · District 24% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Grade 415%

School 15% · District 24% · ▼ 9 pts below district

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

Grade 529%

School 29% · District 25% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Grade 624%

School 24% · District 28% · ▼ 4 pts below district

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

Grade 719%

School 19% · District 31% · ▼ 13 pts below district

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

Grade 832%

School 32% · District 34% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 513%

School 13% · District 15% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

Grade 814%

School 14% · District 15% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Social studies

Grade 813%

School 13% · District 23% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 36 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

This schoolStockton 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.