Design Science Middle College High: Most kids here clear the bar, year after year. The question is what happens after that.
Design Science Middle College posts 69% meeting the standard, and 43.9% 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+ | Grad rate | College readiness | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 58 | 44% | 69% | 98.1% | 0.0% | 18.5% | 3.6% |
| CA average · High School | 44 | 16% | 36% | 87.6% | 35.4% | 30.2% | 3.6% |
Design Science Middle College High scores 58 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 81st percentile of 2,160 California high schools (CDE CAASPP 2025).
Measures test performance, attendance, and climate — not arts, community, or your kid. How we score →
🏫 Solid Base — Ask what the school does for a kid who's already meeting the standard with room to spare — steady proficiency across the board doesn't tell you whether the strongest kids are being pushed further.
Most rating sites would stop at “69% proficient” and call it done. Design Science Middle College deserves a closer read. The school sits in Fresno, where three in five students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
Design Science Middle College's low-income kids hit 73.5% 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 stayed near the 81st percentile since 2019.
This school hasn't fully recovered from the pandemic: 69% meet the standard today, versus 81% in 2019 — a gap worth asking about on a visit.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 88% | 77% | 83% | 80% | 77% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 74% | 51% | 57% | 62% | 61% |
The story this school is actually telling
Of 100 students here: 69 are proficient by 11th grade → 98 graduate → 0 pass an AP exam. The gaps between those bars are the questions to ask.
Design Science Middle College's most underrated number
73.5% 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 what share of students complete the full college-prep course sequence, and who gets steered into it.
- 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 Design Science Middle College High in Fresno, 73.5% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 34.0% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Design Science Middle College High outperforms its district average for low-income students by 39.6 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (52.9% Math proficient); Hispanic students (76.5% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 3.7 percentage points for low-income students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 34 students tested.
6 of 12 student groups here are too small to report — a privacy protection, not a gap.
Showing up, and staying in class
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
Pay is set by the district, not the school.
What gets spent here
These measure different things: this figure is spending attributed to this campus, while district-wide figures also include central administration, districtwide programs, and the state's pension contributions made on the district's behalf — costs that never get assigned to a single school. The district number runs higher at nearly every school, not just this one.
$555 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 243 students, this school is much smaller than the typical California high school (≈1450).
On the state's science test (CAST), 58% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Design Science Middle College High a good high school?
What are Design Science Middle College High's CAASPP test scores?
How does Design Science Middle College High rank in California?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Design Science Middle College High?
How does Design Science Middle College High compare to other schools in Fresno?
How does Design Science Middle College High serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby High Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 47
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 59
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 11 | 57 | 51% | 26% | 12% | 11% | 77% | +30 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 57 | 37% | 25% | 25% | 14% | 61% | +38 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 57 | 18% | 40% | 42% | 0% |
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 | 34 | 73.5% | +40 | +35 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 34 | 76.5% | +41 | +38 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Design Science Middle College High ← | — | 58 | 43.9% | 69.3% | — | 3.6% |
| Career Technical Education Charter | 1.1 mi | 53 | 18.6% | 56.8% | — | 4.9% |
| Phillip J Patino School of Entrepreneurship | 0.4 mi | 49 | 18.8% | 45.5% | — | 3.1% |
| Aspen Ridge Public | 1.5 mi | 39 | 11.8% | 44.1% | — | 10.1% |
| California average | — | 44 | 15.8% | 35.7% | — | 3.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 61 | 82 | #360 | 38.6% | 81.1% | 8.1% | 1.0% | — |
| 2022 | 51 | 69 | #641 | 22.9% | 64.2% | 25.8% | 2.1% | — |
| 2023 | 58 | 82 | #397 | 39.7% | 69.8% | 18.6% | 1.6% | — |
| 2024 | 57 | 81 | #413 | 39.1% | 70.9% | 20.0% | 3.8% | — |
| 2025 | 58 | 81 | #412 | 43.9% | 69.3% | 18.5% | 3.6% | — |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 4.4% | 18.7% | +14.3pp |
| Male | 3.6% | 10.7% | +7.1pp |
| Asian | 0.0% | 10.0% | +10.0pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 4.3% | 15.3% | +11.0pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 5.3% | 17.5% | +12.2pp |
| All Students | 4.0% | 15.0% | +11.0pp |
| Two or More Races | — | 23.1% | — |
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