Two schools can look identical on a rating site. At one, more kids go past the bar. At the other, they just clear it.

SchoolScope reads California's official public test data (CAASPP) school by school and splits "met standard" from "exceeded" — a split most rating sites report as one blended figure. A school where 60% of kids exceed standard is a different school than one where 60% just barely clear it. We also track grade-to-grade growth and school climate signals like chronic absenteeism and suspension, and combine all of it into a Scope Score with a published formula.

SchoolScope separates "exceeded standard" from "met standard" — a split we haven't found surfaced prominently in GreatSchools' public-facing scores. SchoolScope also tracks grade-to-grade growth trajectories and includes chronic absenteeism and suspension rates in the Scope Score, all against a fully published methodology. GreatSchools has its own strengths — parent reviews and all-50-states coverage — that SchoolScope doesn't offer. See the full comparison.

The Scope Score itself is built from official public sources: CAASPP Smarter Balanced test scores, chronic absenteeism rates, suspension rates, graduation rates (ACGR), and College/Career Indicator data from the California Department of Education (CDE), plus enrollment and demographics from the NCES Common Core of Data. School profiles add context from the University of California, the College Board, and the International Baccalaureate Organization — see our About page for the full 20+-source list. The 2024–25 school year is the current data year.

Yes. Full school profiles are free for every California public school — elementary, middle, and high school alike. No account required. A Scope Score and a percentile rank come with 84.1% of them (8,625 of 10,260). 368 schools — where enrollment is assigned rather than chosen, like juvenile court and special-education programs (see Peer Classes) — publish their evidence without a score, and 1,267 more go unscored for other reasons, most often a grade configuration or data gap. Every school still gets a free profile with whatever evidence we have.

The Scope Score is a 0–100 rating built from how kids do on tests, whether scores improve grade to grade, and school climate signals like attendance and discipline. Elementary and middle schools share one formula; high schools swap growth for graduation rate and college readiness. The exact weights are published on the methodology page.

SchoolScope gives an archetype to 79.7% of California public and charter schools (8,174 of 10,260) — those in the statewide comprehensive peer class that carry a current Scope Score — sorting each into one of seven archetypes based on the school's performance profile: High Ceiling (students exceed standard at high rates), Growth Engine (strong grade-level improvement), Strong All-Around (high scores across every dimension), On the Rise (rapidly improving from a lower base), Solid Base (consistent proficiency), Culture First (strong attendance and climate even where test scores are still developing), and Building Momentum (the default when the data doesn't sort a school one way or the other). Schools where enrollment is assigned rather than chosen — juvenile court, community day and special-education schools — don't get an archetype, and neither do continuation or DASS-flagged alternative schools of choice, which keep a real score but are ranked only within their own peer class, or a comprehensive school with no current Scope Score — the largest of these groups; see peer classes for why. Archetypes describe a school's character — a single number can't.