Bear River: This school runs ahead of the state average. The bar itself is the harder conversation.
Bear River posts 47% meeting the standard against 39% statewide — ahead of most, with real headroom above the bar.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 44 | 19% | 47% | -6.0 | 11.4% | 2.3% |
| CA average · Middle School | 43 | 17% | 39% | +1.5 | 18.5% | 3.7% |
Bear River scores 44 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 58th percentile of 2,238 California middle schools (CDE CAASPP 2025).
Measures test performance, attendance, and climate — not arts, community, or your kid. How we score →
🌱 Building Momentum — This label means the data doesn't clearly sort the school one way or the other — ask what the school is proud of, and what it's working on.
Most rating sites would stop at “47% proficient” and call it done. Bear River deserves a closer read. The school sits in Wheatland, where more than half of students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
The seven-year arc
Has stayed near the 58th percentile since 2019.
Proficiency here is back to its pre-pandemic level — 47% meet the standard, about where the school stood in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 4 | 45% | 53% | 46% | 30% | 48% |
| Grade 5 | 55% | 44% | 49% | 49% | 43% |
| Grade 6 | 53% | 44% | 44% | 44% | 44% |
| Grade 7 | 50% | 53% | 43% | 45% | 57% |
| Grade 8 | 52% | 59% | 53% | 45% | 47% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 4 | 47% | 42% | 47% | 30% | 40% |
| Grade 5 | 35% | 25% | 37% | 34% | 27% |
| Grade 6 | 43% | 42% | 42% | 47% | 47% |
| Grade 7 | 33% | 35% | 34% | 37% | 51% |
| Grade 8 | 47% | 45% | 47% | 37% | 33% |
The story this school is actually telling
The school, grade by grade
ELA · CAASPP 2024–25Different students, same year — each bar is one grade's proficiency mix.
The honest read: the share exceeding rises 2.1pp across grades; the floor rises 2.3pp. The state average falls 0.5pp over the same span. Kids here gain ground the longer they stay — the pattern you want to see. A school visit and conversation with teachers will tell you more than this number.
The 6 things our score weighs
Ask how the school challenges kids who clear the standard early. The gap between meeting and exceeding is where pacing shows.
- Ask what changes between grade 6 and grade 8 here, and who teaches the older kids.
- Ask whether the tour can step into a working classroom — watch how the teacher handles a student who's stuck.
- Ask to tour while school's in session, and notice how hallways and transitions feel — culture shows up between classes, not just in them.
- Ask how the school communicates with families when a child starts to struggle.
- Ask what a typical day looks like for a new student in the first few weeks.
How every group of students does here
At Bear River in Wheatland, 38.5% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 41.8% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Bear River trails its district average for low-income students by 3.3 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (29.8% Math proficient); White students (49.0% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 42.5 percentage points for disabilities students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 330 students tested.
8 of 17 student groups here are too small to report — a privacy protection, not a gap.
Change in proficiency from the lowest tested grade — which groups gain ground the longer they stay. Groups with fewer than 10 tested students per grade are not shown.
Low-income student ELA proficiency falls by 7.3pp from grade 6 to grade 8 at this school. District average: -7.3pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
Grades 4–6 students miss school at roughly twice the rate of Grades 7–8 students (14.3% vs 7.6%). Chronic absence here concentrates in the upper grades.
Where the path goes
The path below follows attendance boundaries — scores shown for each next step.
Estimated path based on proximity within the same district. Contact your school district for official feeder information.
The people teaching here
What gets spent here
$1,033 per student arrives as federal Title funding — a measure of concentrated need, not school quality.
The district's current expense of education per student, from CDE's annual SACS filing — the freshest district spending figure the state publishes.
District-level, from the district's own SACS general-ledger filing — school-by-school breakdowns aren't published by the state.
Source: NCES F-33 · Full district breakdown →
The neighborhood it serves
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates (2024) · ZIP-level
On the state's science test (CAST), 24% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Bear River a good middle school?
What are Bear River's CAASPP test scores?
How does Bear River rank in California?
Is Bear River getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Bear River?
How does Bear River compare to other schools in Wheatland?
How does Bear River serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby High Schools
2 within ~3 mi · avg 36
Private alternatives nearby
Private schools within ~10 miles. These schools do not participate in state testing and cannot be scored or ranked.
Every number on this page
Score factors, grade-level breakdowns, subgroup proficiency, and peer comparisons.
| ELA | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 4 | 88 | 23% | 25% | 26% | 26% | 48% | +3 |
| Grade 5 | 96 | 17% | 26% | 28% | 29% | 43% | −5 |
| Grade 6 | 122 | 14% | 30% | 29% | 27% | 44% | −2 |
| Grade 7 | 129 | 17% | 40% | 20% | 22% | 57% | +10 |
| Grade 8 | 131 | 16% | 31% | 28% | 25% | 47% | +0 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 4 | 88 | 15% | 25% | 32% | 28% | 40% | −2 |
| Grade 5 | 96 | 15% | 13% | 29% | 44% | 27% | −8 |
| Grade 6 | 121 | 25% | 22% | 27% | 26% | 47% | +12 |
| Grade 7 | 129 | 22% | 29% | 24% | 25% | 51% | +17 |
| Grade 8 | 131 | 18% | 15% | 29% | 38% | 33% | +1 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 224 | 6% | 17% | 60% | 17% |
CAST is tested in grades 5, 8, and once in high school — not annually. Not part of the Scope Score.
| Subgroup · ELA | Tested | MET+ | vs district | vs CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 330 | 38.5% | −3 | +0 |
| White | 296 | 49.0% | −1 | −13 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 183 | 42.6% | −3 | +4 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bear River ← | — | 44 | 18.8% | 46.5% | −6.0 | 2.3% |
| California average | — | 43 | 16.8% | 39.3% | +1.5 | 3.7% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 40 | 52 | #957 | 13.3% | 46.4% | 5.5% | 5.4% | +1.8pp |
| 2022 | 48 | 74 | #564 | 15.8% | 46.5% | 22.2% | 2.7% | +9.0pp |
| 2023 | 46 | 61 | #846 | 13.5% | 43.8% | 21.7% | 5.9% | +7.2pp |
| 2024 | 38 | 52 | #1054 | 13.7% | 42.4% | 15.9% | 5.2% | -3.8pp |
| 2025 | 44 | 58 | #935 | 18.8% | 46.5% | 11.4% | 2.3% | -6.0pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 5.5% | 10.8% | +5.3pp |
| Male | 5.4% | 11.4% | +6.0pp |
| Asian | 6.3% | — | — |
| Black/African American | 3.4% | 0.0% | -3.4pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 4.1% | 13.9% | +9.8pp |
| Two or More Races | 13.6% | 15.3% | +1.7pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 6.7% | 17.4% | +10.7pp |
| English Learners | 5.1% | 6.8% | +1.7pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 8.2% | 13.5% | +5.3pp |
| All Students | 5.4% | 11.1% | +5.7pp |
| Homeless | — | 15.4% | — |
SchoolScope scores and verdicts are our interpretation of public California Department of Education data — independent analysis, not an official rating. How we analyze · Request a correction