Dr. Manuel M. Lopez Academy of Arts & Sciences: No single number tells this school's story. Here's the honest picture.
Dr. Manuel M. Lopez Academy of Arts & Sciences posts 28% meeting the standard and 8.1% exceeding it, against 39% and 16.8% statewide. The gaps and the bright spots below are the real read.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 37 | 8% | 28% | +9.7 | 23.0% | 5.9% |
| CA average · Middle School | 43 | 17% | 39% | +1.5 | 18.5% | 3.7% |
Dr. Manuel M. Lopez Academy of Arts & Sciences scores 37 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 41st 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 →
📈 On the Rise — Ask how many years the improvement has held, not just the latest one — one strong cohort and a real turnaround can look identical in a single year of data.
Most rating sites would stop at “28% proficient” and call it done. Dr. Manuel M. Lopez Academy of Arts & Sciences deserves a closer read. The school sits in Oxnard, where four in five students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
The seven-year arc
Climbed from the 21st to the 41st percentile since 2019 — past roughly 300 middle schools.
The pandemic drop is behind this school: 28% of students meet the standard today, above the 19% who did in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 21% | 18% | 24% | 26% | 26% |
| Grade 7 | 23% | 33% | 27% | 37% | 38% |
| Grade 8 | 30% | 31% | 30% | 30% | 39% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 12% | 12% | 14% | 15% | 17% |
| Grade 7 | 14% | 16% | 18% | 19% | 24% |
| Grade 8 | 14% | 12% | 13% | 17% | 24% |
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 3.6pp across grades; the floor rises 12.8pp. 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 what the school is working on next. Strong numbers tell you where a school is, not where it's going.
- 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 Dr. Manuel M. Lopez Academy of Arts & Sciences in Oxnard, 33.7% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 31.2% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Dr. Manuel M. Lopez Academy of Arts & Sciences outperforms its district average for low-income students by 2.4 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (21.0% Math proficient); Hispanic students (34.4% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 29.0 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 604 students tested.
5 of 14 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 rises by 14.3pp from grade 6 to grade 8 at this school. District average: +4.1pp.
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
$1,170 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), 17% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Dr. Manuel M. Lopez Academy of Arts & Sciences a good middle school?
What are Dr. Manuel M. Lopez Academy of Arts & Sciences's CAASPP test scores?
How does Dr. Manuel M. Lopez Academy of Arts & Sciences rank in California?
Is Dr. Manuel M. Lopez Academy of Arts & Sciences getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Dr. Manuel M. Lopez Academy of Arts & Sciences?
How does Dr. Manuel M. Lopez Academy of Arts & Sciences compare to other schools in Oxnard?
How does Dr. Manuel M. Lopez Academy of Arts & Sciences serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Middle Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 33
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 53
Private alternatives nearby
Private schools within ~10 miles. These schools do not participate in state testing and cannot be scored or ranked.
A low score doesn't tell the whole story. Read: Your School Scored Low — Here's What That Actually Means
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 | 219 | 6% | 20% | 25% | 49% | 26% | −20 |
| Grade 7 | 224 | 11% | 27% | 24% | 38% | 38% | −10 |
| Grade 8 | 201 | 10% | 29% | 26% | 34% | 39% | −7 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 213 | 6% | 12% | 24% | 59% | 17% | −18 |
| Grade 7 | 227 | 10% | 14% | 26% | 50% | 24% | −10 |
| Grade 8 | 200 | 6% | 19% | 25% | 52% | 24% | −8 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 200 | 4% | 13% | 65% | 19% |
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 | 604 | 33.7% | +2 | −5 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 612 | 34.4% | +2 | −4 |
| English Learners | 189 | 5.8% | −7 | −5 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dr. Manuel M. Lopez Academy of Arts & Sciences ← | — | 37 | 8.1% | 28.1% | +9.7 | 5.9% |
| Ocean View Junior High | 2.7 mi | 36 | 7.7% | 24.0% | +9.0 | 3.9% |
| R.J. Frank Academy of Marine Science & Engineering | 1.8 mi | 32 | 10.0% | 29.8% | −1.6 | 5.6% |
| Charles Blackstock Junior High | 1.9 mi | 31 | 5.1% | 20.6% | +6.3 | 7.9% |
| California average | — | 43 | 16.8% | 39.3% | +1.5 | 3.7% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 28 | 21 | #1594 | 3.5% | 19.0% | 12.2% | 8.1% | +5.7pp |
| 2022 | 26 | 20 | #1732 | 3.4% | 20.4% | 31.3% | 11.6% | +6.7pp |
| 2023 | 29 | 19 | #1767 | 4.2% | 21.0% | 30.9% | 11.6% | +2.6pp |
| 2024 | 34 | 41 | #1306 | 6.8% | 24.0% | 26.6% | 8.0% | +2.9pp |
| 2025 | 37 | 41 | #1316 | 8.1% | 28.1% | 23.0% | 5.9% | +9.7pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 9.2% | 25.2% | +16.0pp |
| Male | 15.2% | 21.2% | +6.0pp |
| White | 8.3% | — | — |
| Hispanic/Latino | 12.2% | 23.1% | +10.9pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 22.2% | 29.3% | +7.1pp |
| English Learners | 14.3% | 26.9% | +12.6pp |
| Homeless | 40.0% | 25.0% | -15.0pp |
| Military-Connected | 4.3% | 26.1% | +21.8pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 12.7% | 23.6% | +10.9pp |
| All Students | 12.2% | 23.1% | +10.9pp |
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