Plainfield Elementary, Woodland CA

Original Research by School Decision on Plainfield Elementary

Plainfield Elementary sits on County Road 97 in Woodland, serving kindergarten through sixth grade. The school enrolls a modest population of students, about evenly split between Hispanic and white families, with a substantial share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body reflects the agricultural and working-class character of Woodland and its surrounding Yolo County landscape.

Test results show areas of challenge. Across English language arts and math, school-wide proficiency rates fall below half of students. Third grade performs comparatively better, with roughly equal proficiency in both subjects. Performance declines notably in grades four and five, where math proficiency drops to around a quarter of the grade, then recovers slightly in sixth grade. Fifth-grade science proficiency is low, measured at roughly one in seven students meeting standard. The school has only one year of assessment data, so trend direction cannot be established. Against the district comparison set of Yolo County schools, Plainfield's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile, meaning it is outperforming most other county elementary schools on the tested measures, though absolute proficiency rates across the grades remain modest in raw terms. A parent may want to look into further what supports are in place for the grade-level slump in grades four and five, and what interventions or instructional approaches the school is using to address gaps in core subjects.

The school feeds into the Woodland Joint Unified district, which has required Ethnic Studies as a high school graduation course since the 2022-2023 school year, ahead of the statewide mandate. This is a district curriculum commitment families will encounter as their children advance. The district sought voter approval for a school facilities bond (Measure P) in November 2024, which was rejected, leaving facility upgrades dependent on existing resources. A prior bond (Measure Y), approved in 2020, funded expansions of vocational facilities, classroom technology, and infrastructure repairs across the district schools.

Woodland itself is the Yolo County seat, a Central Valley city about twenty miles from Sacramento with a walkable historic downtown anchored by the Opera House and brick storefronts from the Victorian era, surrounded by residential neighborhoods and agricultural land. Growth has been concentrated in the Spring Lake area on the city's southern edge, a master-planned residential development with parks, schools, and transit access, including affordable housing for agricultural workers. Housing costs in the area are moderate relative to the state benchmark, with rental prices moderately rising. The local economy is anchored by trade, transportation and warehousing, healthcare, retail, and agriculture. Yolobus provides local transit and connections to Sacramento, Davis, and UC Davis.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 361%

School 61% · District 33% · ▲ 28 pts above district

▲ 18 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

Grade 447%

School 47% · District 32% · ▲ 15 pts above district

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

Grade 527%

School 27% · District 24% · ▲ 3 pts above district

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

Grade 631%

School 31% · District 25% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median · even with county median

English language arts

Grade 361%

School 61% · District 30% · ▲ 31 pts above district

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

Grade 444%

School 44% · District 34% · ▲ 11 pts above district

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

Grade 536%

School 36% · District 37%

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

Grade 656%

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

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Science

Grade 515%

School 15% · District 23% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

This schoolWoodland Joint 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 4Lower-income15%Higher-income81%66 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income30%Higher-income46%16 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income48%Higher-income65%17 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income35%Higher-income63%28 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income10%Higher-income50%40 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income19%Higher-income43%24 pp gap