Abraham Lincoln Elementary vs Everett A. Rea Elementary

Abraham Lincoln Elementary and Everett A. Rea Elementary sit 4.7 miles apart in Costa Mesa and serve the same grade span, KG–06, but the data reveals a school separated by more than geography. Abraham Lincoln Elementary holds an overall rating of 9.2/10 against Everett A. Rea Elementary's 9.0/10 — a 0.2-point gap that understates the contrast once you dig into the underlying components. In California's statewide ranking, Abraham Lincoln Elementary places #173 of 9,533 schools while Everett A. Rea Elementary ranks #301 of 9,533, a 128-position difference that puts both schools firmly in the top 4% of the state.

The sharpest academic delta sits in the proficiency scores. Abraham Lincoln Elementary posts a 9.1/10 academic score versus Everett A. Rea Elementary's 8.0/10 — a 1.1-point gap that reflects meaningfully higher tested proficiency. The growth picture flips, however: Everett A. Rea Elementary scores 9.6/10 on growth compared to Abraham Lincoln Elementary's 9.0/10, meaning students at Rea are advancing at a faster pace relative to their starting points. For families weighing where students begin versus how much ground they gain each year, these two numbers point in opposite directions.

Demographically, the two schools serve notably different populations. Abraham Lincoln Elementary enrolls 294 students with 31% qualifying for free or reduced lunch, while Everett A. Rea Elementary has 346 students and a 93% free/reduced lunch rate — a 62-point gap that signals a substantial difference in the economic circumstances families bring to the school. Abraham Lincoln Elementary also offers a lower student-teacher ratio of 16.3:1 against Rea's 18.2:1, meaning roughly two fewer students per teacher on average.

Both schools operate identical KG–06 grade structures within the same Costa Mesa district, making a direct apples-to-apples comparison unusually clean. The 1.1-point academic score advantage for Abraham Lincoln Elementary and the #173 vs. #301 state rank gap are the headline differentiators, but Everett A. Rea Elementary's superior 9.6/10 growth score demonstrates that high-trajectory learning is happening there regardless of the proficiency baseline.