Southport Elementary, West Sacramento CA

Original Research by School Decision on Southport Elementary

Southport Elementary serves kindergarten through eighth grade in West Sacramento, a city of mixed residential neighborhoods, industrial heritage, and rapid waterfront redevelopment directly across the Sacramento River from downtown. The school sits in the Southport area, a quieter residential pocket with a small-town character and suburban homes.

The school enrolls a diverse student body of about that size for its grade band, with substantial economic need: roughly half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student population is racially and ethnically mixed, with meaningful representation across Hispanic, white, Asian, and multiracial backgrounds, among others. Enrollment is distributed across all grades kindergarten through eight, with the largest cohort in the early grades.

Academic performance is uneven and shows clear challenges. On California's state assessments in math, proficiency ranges widely by grade. Fourth grade is the strongest, with about half of students meeting standards, while sixth through eighth grades fall to roughly one in four or fewer. English language arts shows similar grade-level variation: fourth and fifth graders perform near or above half proficient, but third grade starts lower, and sixth through eighth grades decline again. Science proficiency in the fifth grade sits under half; eighth-grade science proficiency drops substantially. Across all tested grades and subjects combined, the school's overall proficiency sits above the median for districts in Yolo County, positioning it in the top quartile regionally, though that regional standing masks significant within-school variation and lower performance in the upper grades.

The lack of historical trend data means we cannot tell whether performance is improving, stable, or declining. Data on enrollment in special education and English learner services was not available, so the full extent of student support needs remains unclear. Beyond state assessments, the school does not report details on discipline, attendance, course offerings, or staffing that would round out a picture of school environment and daily operations.

West Sacramento itself is in transition. The city has established neighborhoods in older areas like Broderick-Bryte and is experiencing substantial growth in the new Bridge District, a mixed-use waterfront redevelopment with hundreds of new apartments, offices, and restaurants underway. Housing values in the area are mid-range for California, though a notable property tax surprise hit homeowners in fall 2023 when Yolo County collected higher rates to correct a prior accounting error on school bond payments. The district passed a major bond measure in 2020 for facility improvements, representing an ongoing tax commitment families weigh when considering the area. Schools in the district are dispersed across neighborhood campuses rather than centered downtown, with Southport Elementary embedded in its residential area rather than part of a dense school or civic cluster.

For a family considering Southport Elementary, the relevant facts are straightforward: a stable, neighborhood school with diverse peers serving a community with real economic diversity, located in a growing city. The school's math and English results show solid performance in the middle elementary grades and a meaningful drop-off in the upper middle grades and middle school years, a pattern a parent may want to explore further with the school's staff to understand whether it reflects instructional shifts, student composition changes, assessment difficulty, or other factors. The school does not report on special populations, so families with students needing English language or special education support should ask directly about services available.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 338%

School 38% · District 37% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 459%

School 59% · District 39% · ▲ 21 pts above district

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

Grade 540%

School 40% · District 28% · ▲ 12 pts above district

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

Grade 628%

School 28% · District 23% · ▲ 5 pts above district

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

Grade 728%

School 28% · District 23% · ▲ 5 pts above district

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

Grade 821%

School 21% · District 23% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 333%

School 33% · District 34% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 456%

School 56% · District 40% · ▲ 16 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 17 pts above county median

Grade 555%

School 55% · District 37% · ▲ 18 pts above district

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

Grade 636%

School 36% · District 33% · ▲ 3 pts above district

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

Grade 743%

School 43% · District 40% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 2 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 830%

School 30% · District 43% · ▼ 13 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 539%

School 39% · District 27% · ▲ 12 pts above district

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

Grade 817%

School 17% · District 24% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 871%

School 71% · District 52% · ▲ 19 pts above district

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

This schoolWashington 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-income26%Higher-income40%14 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income48%Higher-income64%17 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income54%Higher-income56%1 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income35%Higher-income39%4 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income35%Higher-income53%18 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income17%Higher-income46%29 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income28%Higher-income48%20 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income45%Higher-income74%29 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income30%Higher-income53%22 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income21%Higher-income36%15 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income15%Higher-income42%28 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income5%Higher-income40%35 pp gap