Schroeder Elementary, Huntington Beach CA

Original Research by School Decision on Schroeder Elementary

Schroeder Elementary serves kindergarten through sixth grade in Huntington Beach, a coastal Orange County city where single-family homes dominate inland neighborhoods and the waterfront includes both vacation-home estates and beach-tourism economy. The school sits on the inland side of this landscape, drawing students from a diverse cross-section of the city.

The school currently enrolls roughly equal numbers across its grade band, with the student body split across Asian, Hispanic, and white families in roughly equivalent shares, plus a smaller multiracial population. About half the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a mixed-income enrollment rather than a uniformly affluent one. The data on English learners and special education enrollment was not available, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about those populations and services.

On the most recent state assessments in English language arts and math, Schroeder's performance shows a consistent pattern: strong proficiency in the early primary grades, then a visible decline as students move into the upper elementary years. In third grade, more than four-fifths of students meet proficiency in both ELA and math. By fourth grade that share drops into the low-to-mid-sixties in both subjects. By fifth grade ELA stays solid in the upper seventies, but math dips further into the mid-fifties. Sixth grade shows further drops: ELA holds around two-thirds proficiency, while math falls to just above one-third. A fifth-grade science assessment also showed mid-sixties proficiency. Overall proficiency across tested grades and subjects sits above the midpoint among county districts, placing the school in the top quartile within Orange County's elementary comparison set, yet the downward trajectory in math in particular is a real soft spot to understand. A parent considering Schroeder may want to ask what math interventions or support structures exist for students as they reach the upper grades, and whether the school has any theories about what drives that pattern.

Huntington Beach itself is a mixed-use coastal city with a walkable downtown core around Main Street and the pier, lined with shops, restaurants, and breweries, though many inland neighborhoods rely more on cars. The city's major civic anchor is Huntington Central Park, a large green space with lakes, trails, an equestrian center, and sports facilities, plus the Central Library and senior center. Median home values in the area are high, reflecting coastal Orange County demand. The city has been allocated housing targets under state law and several large developments are advancing, including a former oil site redevelopment, a downtown mixed-use project, and luxury oceanfront homes, all signaling growth and real-estate activity. The aerospace sector, anchored by Boeing, is significant to the local economy, though Boeing has also conducted recent layoffs affecting some California positions.

The Westminster School District, which operates Schroeder, has built out a notable Vietnamese Dual Language Immersion pathway spanning preschool through twelfth grade, now extended to high school and claimed as the nation's first such continuous bilingual pathway. The program runs through DeMille Elementary (where Vietnamese DLI feeds in) and into middle and high school, earning students the California Seal of Biliteracy. The district also added early-learning dual-language immersion in both Spanish and Vietnamese at the preschool level. These are lasting program choices within the district ecosystem that families considering schools in Westminster would weigh as part of their K-8 decisions. The district also adopted formal AI guidance policy updates in late 2024, establishing expectations around artificial intelligence use in instruction and academic integrity.

Schroeder itself appears to be a school where the primary grades are on solid footing and the upper elementary grades present a performance challenge, especially in math. For a family in this attendance zone, the school offers a diverse peer group in a walkable, active beach community with strong civic amenities and real growth underway. Understanding how the school supports students as they move into fourth through sixth grade, and what specific approaches it uses for struggling math learners, would be the critical follow-up questions.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 380%

School 80% · District 51% · ▲ 30 pts above district

▲ 38 pts above state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

Grade 464%

School 64% · District 48% · ▲ 16 pts above district

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

Grade 557%

School 57% · District 40% · ▲ 17 pts above district

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

Grade 638%

School 38% · District 42% · ▼ 4 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 380%

School 80% · District 49% · ▲ 32 pts above district

▲ 40 pts above state median · ▲ 30 pts above county median

Grade 463%

School 63% · District 50% · ▲ 13 pts above district

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

Grade 579%

School 79% · District 57% · ▲ 22 pts above district

▲ 34 pts above state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

Grade 664%

School 64% · District 53% · ▲ 11 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 565%

School 65% · District 34% · ▲ 30 pts above district

▲ 36 pts above state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

This schoolWestminster, 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-income78%Higher-income83%5 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income45%Higher-income75%30 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income69%Higher-income86%17 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income55%Higher-income74%20 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income81%Higher-income79%2 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income58%Higher-income68%10 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income42%Higher-income67%24 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income21%Higher-income55%34 pp gap