Bernardo Heights Middle: Most kids here clear the bar, year after year. The question is what happens after that.
Bernardo Heights posts 66% meeting the standard, and 35.1% going well past it. Most kids here keep up. Fewer get pushed further. Ask the school what it does for a child who already finds the work easy.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 60 | 35% | 66% | -1.4 | 11.8% | 2.9% |
| CA average · Middle School | 43 | 17% | 39% | +1.5 | 18.5% | 3.7% |
Bernardo Heights Middle scores 60 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 86th 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 →
💪 Strong All-Around — Ask about what we don't score — class size, electives, the feel of a classroom — strong numbers everywhere on paper don't mean every classroom feels the same.
Most rating sites would stop at “66% proficient” and call it done. Bernardo Heights deserves a closer read. It sits at the 86th percentile of 2,238 California middle schools — but the ranking is the least interesting thing on this page.
Bernardo Heights's low-income kids hit 51.7% proficiency in ELA — a number the same group reaches at 38.2% statewide. If you're trying to read past zip-code-driven test scores, that's the signal worth weighing.
The seven-year arc
Has held the 86th-percentile line every tested year since 2019.
Proficiency here is back to its pre-pandemic level — 66% meet the standard, about where the school stood in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 74% | 71% | 71% | 69% | 73% |
| Grade 7 | 73% | 76% | 72% | 75% | 74% |
| Grade 8 | 78% | 72% | 73% | 72% | 74% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 63% | 55% | 60% | 57% | 60% |
| Grade 7 | 57% | 56% | 58% | 55% | 59% |
| Grade 8 | 61% | 48% | 55% | 47% | 56% |
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 falls 3.7pp across grades; the proficiency floor barely moves. The state average falls 0.5pp over the same span. A school visit and conversation with teachers will tell you more than this number.
Bernardo Heights's most underrated number
51.7% of low-income students met the ELA standard — versus 38.2% for the same group statewide. That's the strongest kind of signal a school can post: it holds across income lines.
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 whether extra support — tutoring, counseling, small groups — reaches kids across income lines, not just the students already ahead.
- 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 Bernardo Heights Middle in San Diego, 51.7% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 50.8% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Bernardo Heights Middle outperforms its district average for low-income students by 0.9 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (31.3% Math proficient); White students (72.0% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 68.3 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 207 students tested.
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 rises by 0.9pp from grade 6 to grade 8 at this school. District average: +1.2pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
Where the path goes
The path below follows attendance boundaries — scores shown for each next step.
Feeder patterns derived from NCES attendance boundary data. Boundaries are approximate and may have changed — verify with your school district for current assignments.
The people teaching here
Pay is set by the district, not the school.
What gets spent here
$236 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
At 1,487 students, this school is well above the typical California middle school (≈860).
On the state's science test (CAST), 60% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Bernardo Heights Middle a good middle school?
What are Bernardo Heights Middle's CAASPP test scores?
How does Bernardo Heights Middle rank in California?
Is Bernardo Heights Middle getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Bernardo Heights Middle?
How does Bernardo Heights Middle compare to other schools in San Diego?
How does Bernardo Heights Middle serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 72
Nearby High Schools
2 within ~3 mi · avg 58
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 6 | 472 | 38% | 35% | 18% | 9% | 73% | +27 |
| Grade 7 | 478 | 33% | 41% | 17% | 8% | 74% | +27 |
| Grade 8 | 470 | 34% | 40% | 17% | 9% | 74% | +28 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 476 | 37% | 23% | 24% | 16% | 60% | +25 |
| Grade 7 | 474 | 32% | 27% | 25% | 16% | 59% | +25 |
| Grade 8 | 469 | 36% | 20% | 23% | 21% | 56% | +24 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 468 | 29% | 31% | 36% | 5% |
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 | 207 | 51.7% | +1 | +13 |
| White | 596 | 72.0% | −0 | +10 |
| Asian | 317 | 88.0% | +0 | +14 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bernardo Heights Middle ← | — | 60 | 35.1% | 66.1% | −1.4 | 2.9% |
| Meadowbrook Middle | 2.2 mi | 48 | 25.7% | 53.5% | −3.7 | 2.4% |
| California average | — | 43 | 16.8% | 39.3% | +1.5 | 3.7% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 61 | 88 | #236 | 34.1% | 67.8% | 6.4% | 2.3% | +0.8pp |
| 2022 | 57 | 85 | #314 | 31.4% | 63.0% | 15.2% | 1.4% | -3.1pp |
| 2023 | 65 | 89 | #231 | 34.0% | 64.6% | 16.2% | 4.0% | -1.6pp |
| 2024 | 58 | 85 | #328 | 31.6% | 62.4% | 12.0% | 2.9% | -3.4pp |
| 2025 | 60 | 86 | #308 | 35.1% | 66.1% | 11.8% | 2.9% | -1.4pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 7.2% | 13.3% | +6.1pp |
| Male | 5.6% | 10.3% | +4.7pp |
| Asian | 0.4% | 5.1% | +4.7pp |
| Black/African American | 22.2% | 19.4% | -2.8pp |
| Filipino | 0.0% | — | — |
| White | 3.0% | 4.1% | +1.1pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 10.8% | 16.9% | +6.1pp |
| Two or More Races | 3.1% | 10.4% | +7.3pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 12.8% | 20.9% | +8.1pp |
| English Learners | 3.8% | 21.9% | +18.1pp |
| Homeless | 25.0% | 43.8% | +18.8pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 14.7% | 26.2% | +11.5pp |
| All Students | 6.4% | 11.7% | +5.3pp |
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