The top reported proficiency rate is 46% in English language arts. The lowest is 16% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Finley Elementary
Finley Elementary sits on Edwards Street in Westminster, a mid-sized suburban city in western Orange County built largely on mid-century residential tracts and now defined as much by its cultural geography as its physical one. The Little Saigon district along Bolsa Avenue, publicly reported as the largest Vietnamese enclave outside Vietnam, brings a distinctive everyday character to this otherwise car-oriented suburb of quiet older streets and distributed commercial corridors. Finley is part of the Westminster School District, which serves grades TK through 8 before students transition to the Huntington Beach Union High School District for high school.
The school serves kindergarten through fifth grade and draws a student body that is majority Hispanic, with a substantial Asian enrollment as well. A large share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, making this one of the more economically disadvantaged campuses in its community. Data on English learner enrollment and students receiving special education services were not available in what was provided.
State testing results on the California CAASPP for 2024-25 show English language arts proficiency running roughly in the mid-forties across tested grades, which is a partial-year picture since only grades three through five are tested at this level. Math results are more uneven: fourth grade reaches close to half of students meeting the standard, but third grade falls meaningfully below that, and fifth grade scores are lower still. Science proficiency among fifth graders, measured on the California Science Test, is also low. Placed against other districts in Orange County, the school's overall proficiency index sits in the bottom quartile of the comparison set. This is a factual description of where the school stands; parents who want to understand what supports are in place for students who are behind grade level would do well to ask the school directly. Only one year of data was available, so trends cannot be assessed.
The school itself has no magnet designation, and no information was provided about specific program offerings at Finley. What is worth knowing is the broader district context: Westminster School District has built what is publicly reported as the nation's first preschool-through-twelfth-grade Vietnamese-English bilingual pathway, beginning at DeMille Elementary and running through a partner high school. That program is housed at a different campus, not at Finley, but it reflects the district's investment in dual-language education, and Spanish dual-language options also exist at other elementary sites. The district also adopted formal AI guidance policies in late 2024, signaling an active stance on how emerging classroom technology is handled. Whether any of these district initiatives extend meaningfully to Finley's day-to-day instruction is something families would want to ask about directly.
The housing market surrounding the school is expensive by any national measure. Home values in the relevant zip code are well above the California statewide median, and rents consume a substantial share of a typical household's income. The gap between what a mortgage costs and what a comparable unit rents for is wide, meaning buying into this area carries a significant premium over renting. Year-over-year appreciation has been modest but positive, and the broader Westminster development picture is shifting: the former Westminster Mall is being redeveloped into a large mixed-use district with hundreds of new residential units, meaning the community around the school may see meaningful demographic and density changes over the coming years.
For a family weighing this school, the picture is a neighborhood elementary with a demographically diverse, economically challenged student body in a culturally rich city, where test scores across subjects are currently running below the midpoint of Orange County's districts. The district around it offers some distinctive bilingual programming at other sites. A parent looking for a school with strong tested academic outcomes relative to county peers will find the current numbers below that bar and should ask the school about its instructional approach and support structures before drawing conclusions about fit.
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