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College Preparatory Middle

Grades 5-8Charter2024–25 data
Charter school — publicly funded, independently operated, open enrollment via lottery. Learn more
Strong
90/100
Strong — 99th percentile statewide
#11 of 1,714 CA middle schools
↑ 0.8 pts since 2019
⭐ High Ceiling

A high-ceiling school — students here are pushed to exceed, not just meet, the standard. Achieves top results on below-average funding — one of the most efficient schools in the state

School Climate
97% of students attend consistently
Chronic absenteeism: 3.0% (state avg: 19.1%)
"Attend consistently" means missing ≤10% of school days (the chronic absenteeism threshold).
Minimal suspensions
0.9% suspension rate (state avg: 4.2%)
Share of students who received at least one suspension during the year.
Source: California Dept. of Education, 2024–25See breakdown by student group →

What the numbers actually mean

Most rating sites report "84% proficient" and stop there. We think that number deserves more context — here's what we found when we looked deeper:

58.1% of students exceeded standard? Level 4 on California's CAASPP Smarter Balanced Assessment — the state defines four levels: Not Met, Nearly Met, Met, and Exceeded. while 25.9% met it. That exceeded rate is 40.8 points above the state average of 17.3%. The gap between "met" and "exceeded" can reveal how much a school's curriculum challenges students beyond proficiency.

College Preparatory Middle
58%
26%
California average
17%
22%
ExceededMet onlyBelow

We tracked the same cohort across years (2023 G6 → 2025 G8): students gained 88 scale score points? Pseudo-cohort tracking: we compare this school's G6 class from a prior year to the G8 class in the current year. Same school, same cohort aged forward. Uses SBAC scale scores designed for cross-year comparison., suggesting this school is adding measurable value over time.

SchoolScope cohort tracking · Same cohort tracked across years using SBAC scale scores — stronger than single-year cross-grade comparison

California's Dashboard shows ELA performance increased and Math increased year-over-year.

Chronic absenteeism? Missing 10%+ of enrolled school days. This is an official California Dashboard accountability indicator. is 3.0%, better than the state average of 19.1%.

Data you won't find on other sites: School-level per-pupil spending (not just district averages) · Current-year 2025 data direct from CDE · The exceeded vs. met split that most rating sites collapse into one number

Why the exceeded vs. met split matters → · Scope Score is SchoolScope's analysis of CDE data — not an official CDE rating. How we built this score (and what it misses) →

No single score captures a school. This is a starting point — visit, ask questions, trust your instincts.

What this score doesn't capture
  • — Teaching quality, classroom culture, and how teachers connect with students
  • — Arts, athletics, extracurriculars, and enrichment programs
  • — How well the school serves students with IEPs or gifted learners
  • — Parent community engagement and satisfaction
  • — Whether the curriculum aligns with your family's values

Most of our data is updated once per year and may reflect the prior school year.


Before you visit
Questions worth asking and signals worth checking
Who this school is great for
Students already performing at or above grade level — 58% of students here push past the standard
Families where consistent attendance and school culture matter — absenteeism is well below state average
Families looking for a low-discipline-incident environment
Worth checking: May feel competitive — check that support exists for kids who hit a wall
These reflect data patterns, not guarantees. Your child's experience will depend on their teacher, grade, and classroom — things no score captures.

Score Factors
Academic Performance
Exceeded standard: 58.1%
40.8pp above state avg (state avg 17.3%)
43% weight

Exceeded rate gets the highest weight because it separates schools that clear the bar from those that raise it.

Limitation: Reflects tested students only — opt-out rates are not published by CDE.

CDE CAASPP 2025
Met or exceeded: 84.0%
44.5pp above state avg (state avg 39.5%)
22% weight

Overall proficiency provides the broadest measure of academic achievement.

Limitation: Combines ‘met’ and ‘exceeded’ — the gap between them matters more than either alone.

CDE CAASPP 2025
Holding back
Growth (G6→G8): +0.8pp
Scores improve across grades (state avg +0.8pp)
15% weight

Growth measures what the school adds, not what families bring. When available, we track the same cohort across years for a stronger signal.

Limitation: Cohort tracking is school-level (not individual students) — transfers and demographic shifts can affect results. Falls back to cross-sectional comparison when historical data is unavailable.

SchoolScope derived
School Climate
Chronic absenteeism: 3.0%
16.0pp below state avg (state avg 19.1%)
10% weight

Absenteeism reflects school culture and family engagement — an official CA Dashboard accountability indicator.

Limitation: 10% threshold is the same for all schools regardless of demographics or geography.

CDE Attendance 2025
Suspension rate: 0.9%
3.3pp below state avg (state avg 4.2%)
5% weight

Low suspension rates correlate with positive school culture and restorative practices.

Limitation: Schools may differ in reporting practices — some underreport to improve metrics.

CDE Discipline 2025
We make judgment calls about what matters. We believe exceeded scores reveal more than proficiency alone, and that growth matters more than raw test results. Reasonable people could weight these differently — and that's fine. The factors above show exactly what we weighted and why, so you can decide where you agree and where you'd adjust. The middle school Scope Score uses 5 dimensions. How we built this score (and what it misses) →

The Scope Score emphasizes academic performance. It weights test proficiency, the exceeded-vs-met gap, and growth trajectory most heavily. If your family prioritizes arts, athletics, school culture, or teaching philosophy, this score captures some of that indirectly (through absenteeism and suspension) but not all of it. Different families should weight these dimensions differently — the score factors above let you see exactly what drives this number.

How to use this
  • Use for long-term academic patterns, not this week's classroom experience
  • Verify with a recent visit — scores can't capture a school mid-transformation
  • Combine with local context — talk to parents, attend a school board meeting, trust your gut

Community Profile
Context — not part of the Scope Score

Student demographics

Hispanic26.0%
White60.5%
Asian2.8%
Black3.8%
Other7.0%
GenderFemale 50.0%Male 50.0%
Resources & Access
Enrollment
400
460 below CA avg (~860)
Free/Reduced Lunch
33%
31pp below CA avg (64%)
Student-Teacher Ratio
20:1
1 fewer students per teacher than CA avg
Per-Pupil Spending
$10,901
District avg: $6,828 · CA avg: $14,815 · School-level · CDE ESSA
At College Preparatory Middle in Spring Valley, 80.8% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 80.8% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. College Preparatory Middle outperforms its district average for low-income students by 0.0 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (74.0% Math proficient); White students (87.4% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 6.1 percentage points for hispanic students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 177 students tested.
Equity Gaps
Absenteeism · Hispanic+3.7pp
6.7% vs 3.0% overall · n=105
Suspension · Two or More Races+4.1pp
5.0% vs 0.9% overall · n=20
ELA · Hispanic−6.1pp
79.9% vs 86.0% overall · n=97
3 more gaps by subject
ELA Exceeded · Hispanic−15.0pp
39.1% vs 54.1% overall · n=97
Math · Hispanic−6.1pp
73.0% vs 79.1% overall · n=97
Math Exceeded · Hispanic−15.5pp
42.0% vs 57.5% overall · n=97

Subgroups with fewer than 15 students are excluded for privacy. Gaps of less than 3 percentage points are not shown.

Subgroup Proficiency
Low-Income177 tested
ELA 80.8%·Math 74.0%· +0.0pp vs district
White231 tested
ELA 87.4%·Math 79.2%· +0.0pp vs district
Hispanic97 tested
ELA 79.4%·Math 73.2%· +0.0pp vs district

Weighted average across tested grades. Subgroups with fewer than 15 students excluded. Data: CDE CAASPP 2024-25.

Subgroup Growth by Grade
Change in proficiency from lowest tested grade. Shows which groups are gaining ground.

Low-income student ELA proficiency rises by 4.5pp from grade 6 to grade 8 at this school. District average: +4.5pp.

Subgroups with fewer than 10 tested students per grade are not shown.

Funding Breakdown
Instruction 64%Support 35%Other 1%

Source: NCES F-33 (2019–2020) · Full district breakdown →

Neighborhood Context
Median Income
$86K
$1K above CA median
Median Home Value
$589K
$70K below CA median
Bachelor's+
25%
10pp below CA avg
Whole Child
Teacher experience, college/career readiness, and more. Context only — never part of the Scope Score.
Teacher Experience
6.6 years avg experience
20 teachers · 5% first-year · 20% second-year
Teacher Credentials
79% fully credentialed

Source: CDE SARC, 2024-25

Community Profile provides context about who attends this school and the resources available. These factors are never part of the Scope Score. Learn why →

5-year trend

8990'19'22'23'24'25
Stable (±0.8)
Rank: #29 → #176 → #95 → #26 → #11Exceeded: 47% → 39% → 45% → 50% → 58%
2019 · 2022 · 2023 · 2024 · 2025 · No testing 2020–21 (COVID) · Scope Score based on CAASPP, absenteeism & suspension data

How College Preparatory Middle compares

College Preparatory Middle vs. California averages — 2025 CAASPP data
MetricThis schoolCA avg
Exceeded Standard58.1%17.3%
Met or Exceeded84.0%39.5%
Chronic Absenteeism3.0%19.1%
Suspension Rate0.9%4.2%
Cohort GrowthStrongAverage

Source: California Department of Education CAASPP 2025 · Analyzed by SchoolScope

Grade trajectory

How proficiency compares across grade levels this year (different students, same test year)

ELA Trajectory
87.9%91.5%G6G7G8
Math Trajectory
81.8%79.8%G6G7G8

ELA scores by grade

GradeTestedExceededMetNearly MetNot MetMet+Above
5th9950.5%30.3%13.1%6.1%80.8%
6th9957.6%30.3%11.1%1.0%87.9%
7th10049.0%35.0%13.0%3.0%84.0%
8th9459.6%31.9%8.5%0.0%91.5%

Math scores by grade

GradeTestedExceededMetNearly MetNot MetMet+Above
5th9947.5%28.3%15.2%9.1%75.8%
6th9963.6%18.2%15.2%3.0%81.8%
7th10052.0%27.0%14.0%7.0%79.0%
8th9467.0%12.8%17.0%3.2%79.8%

Science scores by grade

GradeTestedExceededMetNearly MetNot MetMet+Above
8th19149.7%28.3%22.0%0.0%78.0%

191 students tested · CAST is tested in grades 5, 8, and once in high school — not annually like ELA/Math. Not included in the Scope Score. · Data source: CDE CAST 2025

Schools nearby

Private alternatives nearby

Private schools within ~10 miles. These schools do not participate in state testing and cannot be scored or ranked.

Mt. Helix Academy - Tiee
Severin Dr · Nonsectarian · Grades Pre-K-8 · 210 students
8:1Private3.2 mi
Sierra School of San Diego
Boulder Lake Ave · Nonsectarian · Grades 2-12 · 72 students
8:1Private4.6 mi
Excelsior Academy
Pkwy Dr Ste 113 · Nonsectarian · Grades 5-12 · 24 students
8:1Private4.5 mi
Fred Finch Youth Center Nonpublic School
Spring Dr · Nonsectarian · Grades 8-12 · 11 students
6:1Private1.8 mi
Christian Elementary School-East Campus
Greenfield Dr · Amish · Grades Pre-K-6 · 372 students
18:1Private5.5 mi

Frequently asked questions

Is College Preparatory Middle a good middle school?
College Preparatory Middle has a Scope Score of 90 out of 100, placing it in the 99th percentile of California middle schools and ranked #11 statewide. 58.1% of students exceeded the state standard on the 2025 CAASPP assessment, which is 40.8 percentage points above the California average of 17.3%. The Scope Score weights five dimensions: the exceeded-vs-met split (45%), proficiency (25%), grade-level growth (15%), chronic absenteeism (10%), and suspension rate (5%). Data source: California Department of Education CAASPP 2025, analyzed by SchoolScope.
What are College Preparatory Middle's CAASPP test scores?
On the 2025 CAASPP Smarter Balanced Assessment, 84.0% of students at College Preparatory Middle met or exceeded the state standard in ELA and Math combined, and 58.1% exceeded it. The gap between those numbers matters: 25.9% of students are at the proficiency floor, while 58.1% pushed past it. Most rating sites report only the combined "proficient" number. SchoolScope surfaces the exceeded-vs-met split because it reveals whether a school's curriculum challenges students beyond minimum proficiency or paces toward it. 586 student-subject combinations were assessed.
How does College Preparatory Middle rank in California?
College Preparatory Middle ranks #11 among California middle schools by Scope Score, placing it in the 99th percentile. This ranking is based on a weighted composite of 2025 CAASPP test performance (exceeded and met rates), grade-level growth (Grade 6 to grade 8 growth), chronic absenteeism, and suspension rate. Unlike single-number ratings, the Scope Score shows what drives the ranking so parents can decide what matters most to their family. See full methodology.
Is College Preparatory Middle getting better or worse?
Based on 2025 CAASPP data, proficiency at College Preparatory Middle increases by 0.8 percentage points from Grade 6 to grade 8 growth. This upward trajectory suggests the school is adding measurable value — students leave with higher proficiency rates than they entered with. Growth trajectory is weighted at 15% in the middle Scope Score because it measures what the school does, not just who walks in the door.
What is the attendance and school culture like at College Preparatory Middle?
3.0% of students at College Preparatory Middle are chronically absent (missing 10% or more of school days), which is better than the California average of 19.1%. The suspension rate is 0.9%, indicating a low-discipline-incident environment. SchoolScope includes these culture metrics in the Scope Score because they reflect day-to-day school experience in ways test scores alone cannot.
How does College Preparatory Middle compare to other schools in Spring Valley?
College Preparatory Middle scores 90/100 (99th percentile) among California middle schools. To compare with nearby schools, SchoolScope shows the same metrics side by side: exceeded rate, proficiency, growth trajectory, and school culture indicators. The school serves 400 students. Use the schools in Spring Valley page or the map view to compare all middle schools nearby.
How does College Preparatory Middle serve low-income and underrepresented students?
At College Preparatory Middle in Spring Valley, 80.8% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 80.8% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. College Preparatory Middle outperforms its district average for low-income students by 0.0 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (74.0% Math proficient); White students (87.4% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 6.1 percentage points for hispanic students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 177 students tested. SchoolScope shows disaggregated test scores by demographic subgroup so you can see how a school performs for your child's specific group — not just the school-wide average. Subgroup data is context, not part of the Scope Score: we don't penalize schools for who they serve. See our equity approach.

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Data source: California Department of Education (2025 test year) · How we score · Explore all schools · Blog