Best Middle Schools in California

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Find the best California middle schools with SchoolDigger.com! Focused on test scores for accurate rankings, our user-friendly site simplifies your search. Empower your decisions by exploring top-rated schools, only on SchoolDigger.com - the ultimate guide to K-12 schools!

Year after year, SchoolDigger is always the first to publish California test scores and rankings. Other sites use stale test score data that are several years old! Be in the know with the very latest performance metrics.

The list is updated annually upon the release of the CAST and Smarter Balanced Assessments test scores by the California Department of Education. The most recent update was on Thursday, October 10, 2024.

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School															Students/Teachers											Per Pupil Expenditures (2018)							Ranking (2024 vs 2023)
ID	Rank (of 2777)	School	Type	Grades	Address	City	Zip	County	District	Is Charter	Is Magnet	Is Virtual	Is Title I	Phone	# Students	Full-time Teachers	Student/ Teacher Ratio	Free/Disc Lunch Recipients	White	Black	Hispanic	Asian	American Indian	Pacific Islander	Two or More Races	Per Pupil Expenditures: Total	Personnel from Federal Funds	Non-Personnel from Federal Funds	Total from Federal Funds	Personnel from State and Local Funds	Non-Personnel from State and Local Funds	Total from State and Local Funds	Average Standard Score (2024)	Average Standard Score (2023)	Rank (2023)	Rank Change from 2023	SchoolDigger Rating (2024)
061260001423	1831	Alpha Technology Middle	Public	6-8	8920 Elwyn Ave.	Elverta	95626	Sacramento County	Elverta Joint Elementary	No	(n/a)	No	(n/a)	(916) 991-4726	81	3	25.9	75.3%	33 (40.7%)	2 (2.5%)	41 (50.6%)	3 (3.7%)	1 (1.2%)	0 (0.0%)	1 (1.2%)	$11,382							29.5	17.3	2419	588
061455001773	1832	Tioga Middle	Public	7-8	3232 East Fairmont Ave.	Fresno	93726	Fresno County	Fresno Unified	No	(n/a)	No	(n/a)	(559) 248-7280	670	33	20	90.9%	62 (9.3%)	69 (10.3%)	418 (62.4%)	90 (13.4%)	8 (1.2%)	1 (0.1%)	21 (3.1%)	$9,670							29.5	23.8	2112	280
061347001533	1833	Burney Junior-Senior High	Public	7-12	37571 Mountain View Rd.	Burney	96013	Shasta County	Fall River Joint Unified	No	(n/a)	No	(n/a)	(530) 335-4576	238	15	15.5	50.8%	127 (53.4%)	0 (0.0%)	55 (23.1%)	1 (0.4%)	31 (13.0%)	1 (0.4%)	23 (9.7%)	$9,842							29.4	32	1744	89
060813012670	1834	Cesar Chavez Junior High	Public	7-8	2701 Eastgate Blvd.	Ceres	95307	Stanislaus County	Ceres Unified	No	(n/a)	No	(n/a)	(209) 556-1830	662	32	20.6	82.6%	65 (9.8%)	6 (0.9%)	518 (78.2%)	65 (9.8%)	2 (0.3%)	2 (0.3%)	4 (0.6%)	$10,169							29.4	20.4	2250	416
063441005628	1835	Denman (James) Middle	Public	6-8	241 Oneida Ave.	San Francisco	94112	San Francisco County	San Francisco Unified	No	(n/a)	No	(n/a)	(415) 469-4535	816	36	22.6	60.9%	63 (7.7%)	62 (7.6%)	373 (45.7%)	220 (27.0%)	1 (0.1%)	12 (1.5%)	85 (10.4%)	$6,103							29.4	37.6	1542	293
062985010906	1836	Leona Jackson	Public	5-8	7220 Jackson St.	Paramount	90723	Los Angeles County	Paramount Unified	No	(n/a)	No	(n/a)	(562) 602-8020	695	33	21.1	95.0%	4 (0.6%)	129 (18.6%)	528 (76.0%)	16 (2.3%)	0 (0.0%)	1 (0.1%)	17 (2.4%)	$3,878							29.4	35.1	1627	209
063237003852	1837	Ethel Kucera Middle	Public	6-8	2140 West Buena Vista Dr.	Rialto	92377	San Bernardino County	Rialto Unified	No	(n/a)	No	(n/a)	(909) 574-7044	964	41	23.4	75.7%	57 (5.9%)	83 (8.6%)	781 (81.0%)	21 (2.2%)	3 (0.3%)	8 (0.8%)	11 (1.1%)	$8,368							29.3	24.2	2091	254
064188006871	1838	Weaver Middle	Public	6-8	3076 East Childs Ave.	Merced	95341	Merced County	Weaver Union	No	(n/a)	No	(n/a)	(209) 723-2174	1,003	44	22.9	63.9%	73 (7.3%)	27 (2.7%)	719 (71.7%)	143 (14.3%)	5 (0.5%)	3 (0.3%)	31 (3.1%)								29.3	28.8	1863	25
062181002591	1839	Waverly Elementary	Public	K-8	3507 Wilmarth Rd.	Stockton	95215	San Joaquin County	Linden Unified	No	(n/a)	No	(n/a)	(209) 931-0735	366	17	21.4	76.8%	87 (23.8%)	0 (0.0%)	268 (73.2%)	6 (1.6%)	1 (0.3%)	1 (0.3%)	3 (0.8%)	$7,347							29.3	43.5	1360	479
062547003804	1840	Montebello Intermediate	Public	6-8	1600 Whittier Blvd.	Montebello	90640	Los Angeles County	Montebello Unified	No	(n/a)	No	(n/a)	(323) 721-5111	796	43	18.3	74.9%	3 (0.4%)	2 (0.3%)	774 (97.2%)	2 (0.3%)	0 (0.0%)	1 (0.1%)	13 (1.6%)	$5,833							29.3	25.4	2028	188

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Other SchoolDigger ranking lists for California

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New! SchoolDigger ranking lists for CA student subgroups:

Female Students Male Students Asian Students African American Students Hispanic Students Pacific Islander Students White Students Multi-racial Students English Language Learner Students Special Education Students Low Socio Economic Status Students Migrant Students Homeless Students Military Connected Students

About our rankings:

Schooldigger calculates school rankings based on Smarter Balanced Assessments English Language Arts/Literacy, Smarter Balanced Assessments Mathematics, CAST Science test scores released by the California Department of Education.
These rankings were last updated on October 10, 2024, and are based on the most recent test scores available. We update rankings as we receive new test scores from the California Department of Education, usually on a yearly basis.
Our sources of data include the National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education and the California Department of Education.
For more information about our ranking process, please see our Ranking FAQ. Details about our methodology are here.

Educational resources:

High school students working on a science experiment

Magnet Schools: Unleashing the Power of Education

Alternative Schools vs Public Schools: A Comparison

SchoolDigger data sources: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Census Bureau and the California Department of Education.