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Western Center Academy

Grades 6-12Charter2024–25 data
Hemet UnifiedHemet, Riverside County92543
📍 2345 Searl Parkway📞 (951) 766-9030🌐 Website
Charter school — publicly funded, independently operated, open enrollment via lottery. Learn more
Solid
63/100
Solid — 88th percentile statewide
#211 of 1,714 CA middle schools
↓ 27.3 pts since 2019
💪 Strong All-Around

Strong across every dimension we measure — academics, growth, culture, and engagement. Above-average investment supporting strong, consistent results

School Climate
95% of students attend consistently
Chronic absenteeism: 5.3% (state avg: 19.1%)
"Attend consistently" means missing ≤10% of school days (the chronic absenteeism threshold).
Minimal suspensions
0.2% 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 "69% proficient" and stop there. We think that number deserves more context — here's what we found when we looked deeper:

32.9% 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 36.1% met it. That exceeded rate is 15.6 points above the state average of 17.3%. That's 23.9 points above the Hemet Unified district average of 9.1%. The gap between "met" and "exceeded" can reveal how much a school's curriculum challenges students beyond proficiency.

CDE CAASPP 2025
Western Center Academy
33%
36%
California average
17%
22%
ExceededMet onlyBelow

We tracked the same cohort across years (2023 G6 → 2025 G8): students gained 43 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 maintained and Math maintained year-over-year.

Chronic absenteeism? Missing 10%+ of enrolled school days. This is an official California Dashboard accountability indicator. is 5.3%, better than the state average of 19.1%.

CDE Attendance 2025

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
What to verify
✓88th percentile performance with 62% economically disadvantaged students — this is genuinely hard to achieve and reflects real school quality, not demographic advantage.
Who this school is great for
✓Families where consistent attendance and school culture matter — absenteeism is well below state average
✓Families looking for a low-discipline-incident environment
△Worth checking: Families wanting top-end academic rigor — more students meet the bar (36%) than exceed it (33%)
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: 32.9%
15.6pp 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: 69.0%
29.5pp 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
✓Growth (G6→G8): +2.7pp
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: 5.3%
13.7pp 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: 0.2%
4.0pp 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

Hispanic45.1%
White35.2%
Asian4.9%
Black5.1%
Other9.7%
GenderFemale 51.4%Male 48.5%Non-binary 0.1%
Resources & Access
Enrollment
741
459 below CA avg (~1,200)
Free/Reduced Lunch
62%
2pp below CA avg (64%)
Student-Teacher Ratio
25:1
4 more students per teacher than CA avg
Per-Pupil Spending
$21,993
District avg: $15,161 · CA avg: $14,815 · School-level · CDE ESSA
Teacher Salary Range
$49,867 – $136,225
District schedule · CA median ~$98K
At Western Center Academy in Hemet, 83.3% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 31.9% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Western Center Academy outperforms its district average for low-income students by 51.3 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (48.3% Math proficient); Hispanic students (81.1% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 3.0 percentage points for hispanic students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 299 students tested.
Equity Gaps
Math · Black−23.7pp
33.3% vs 57.1% overall · n=15
3 more gaps by subject
ELA · Hispanic−3.0pp
83.5% vs 86.6% overall · n=233
ELA Exceeded · Black−16.9pp
26.7% vs 43.6% overall · n=15
Math Exceeded · Low-Income−7.1pp
21.5% vs 28.6% overall · n=298

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

Subgroup Proficiency
Low-Income299 tested
ELA 83.3%·Math 48.3%· +51.3pp vs district
Hispanic233 tested
ELA 81.1%·Math 51.1%· +49.1pp vs district
White135 tested
ELA 88.9%·Math 62.7%· +44.8pp 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 10.0pp from grade 6 to grade 8 at this school. District average: +6.1pp.

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

Funding Breakdown
Instruction 55%Support 37%Other 8%

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

Neighborhood Context
Median Income
$44K
$41K below CA median
Median Home Value
$199K
$460K below CA median
Bachelor's+
11%
24pp below CA avg
Whole Child
Teacher experience, college/career readiness, and more. Context only — never part of the Scope Score.
Teacher Experience
17.2 years avg experience
30 teachers
Teacher Credentials
69% fully credentialed
2.0% on intern/emergency permit

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

9163'19'22'23'24'25
↓ 27.3 points since 2019
Rank: #22 → #115 → #148 → #161 → #211Exceeded: 44% → 31% → 35% → 31% → 33%
2019 · 2022 · 2023 · 2024 · 2025 · No testing 2020–21 (COVID) · Scope Score based on CAASPP, absenteeism & suspension data

How Western Center Academy compares

Western Center Academy vs. California averages — 2025 CAASPP data
MetricThis schoolCA avg
Exceeded Standard32.9%17.3%
Met or Exceeded69.0%39.5%
Chronic Absenteeism5.3%19.1%
Suspension Rate0.2%4.2%
Cohort GrowthAverageAverage

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
75.8%87.1%G6G7G8
Math Trajectory
57.5%51.5%G6G7G8

ELA scores by grade

GradeTestedExceededMetNearly MetNot MetMet+Above
6th12829.7%46.1%18.0%6.3%75.8%
7th13336.1%52.6%9.8%1.5%88.7%
8th13247.0%40.1%10.6%2.3%87.1%
11th8463.1%32.1%2.4%2.4%95.2%

Math scores by grade

GradeTestedExceededMetNearly MetNot MetMet+Above
6th12724.4%33.1%30.7%11.8%57.5%
7th13326.3%27.1%31.6%15.0%53.4%
8th13234.1%17.4%27.3%21.2%51.5%
11th8429.8%36.9%20.2%13.1%66.7%

Science scores by grade

GradeTestedExceededMetNearly MetNot MetMet+Above
8th22527.6%46.7%25.3%0.4%74.2%

225 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

K-12 Path

Western Center Academy serves grades K-12 — students can complete their entire K-12 education here.

Schools nearby
How to get into a charter school in LA →

Frequently asked questions

Is Western Center Academy a good middle school?
Western Center Academy has a Scope Score of 63 out of 100, placing it in the 88th percentile of California middle schools and ranked #211 statewide. 32.9% of students exceeded the state standard on the 2025 CAASPP assessment, which is 15.6 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 Western Center Academy's CAASPP test scores?
On the 2025 CAASPP Smarter Balanced Assessment, 69.0% of students at Western Center Academy met or exceeded the state standard in ELA and Math combined, and 32.9% exceeded it. The gap between those numbers matters: 36.1% of students are at the proficiency floor, while 32.9% 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. 785 student-subject combinations were assessed.
How does Western Center Academy rank in California?
Western Center Academy ranks #211 among California middle schools by Scope Score, placing it in the 88th 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 Western Center Academy getting better or worse?
Based on 2025 CAASPP data, proficiency at Western Center Academy increases by 2.7 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 Western Center Academy?
5.3% of students at Western Center Academy are chronically absent (missing 10% or more of school days), which is better than the California average of 19.1%. The suspension rate is 0.2%, 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 Western Center Academy compare to other schools in Hemet?
Western Center Academy scores 63/100 (88th 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 741 students. Use the schools in Hemet page or the map view to compare all middle schools nearby.
How does Western Center Academy serve low-income and underrepresented students?
At Western Center Academy in Hemet, 83.3% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 31.9% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Western Center Academy outperforms its district average for low-income students by 51.3 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (48.3% Math proficient); Hispanic students (81.1% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 3.0 percentage points for hispanic students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 299 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