How does Esencia Middle compare to other middle schools in Rancho Mission Viejo?

Esencia Middle has a SchoolScope composite score of 63.8/100, placing it at the 92nd percentile statewide. 43% of students exceed standard, with a total of 706 students tested across grades and subjects.

What percentage of students exceed standards at Esencia Middle?

42.6% of students at Esencia Middle exceed the state standard on CAASPP assessments, while 76.2% meet or exceed it. The gap between these two numbers reveals whether the school pushes students beyond basic proficiency.

Is Esencia Middle improving or declining?

Based on CAASPP data, Esencia Middle's proficiency rate decreases by 2.2 percentage points from Grade 6 to grade 8 growth. This pattern in test scores may reflect a variety of factors beyond the school itself.

What is the chronic absenteeism rate at Esencia Middle?

7.5% of students at Esencia Middle are chronically absent (missing 10% or more of school days). This metric reflects school culture and family engagement, and is weighted at 15% in our composite score.

Esencia Middle

Middle School

Capistrano Unified Rancho Mission ViejoOrange County92694

📍 5 Aprender Street

Composite Score

out of 100

State Percentile

of middle schools

State Rank

of 1,714 California middle schools

🏫

Solid Base

A solid, reliable choice — most students meet proficiency standards consistently.

Composite scores are SchoolScope's analysis of public data from the California Dept. of Education (CAASPP, chronic absenteeism, suspension rates). They are not official CDE ratings and should not be the sole basis for school decisions. See methodology.

School overview

Enrollment

284 students

Student-Teacher Ratio

19:1

Free/Reduced Lunch

21%

Teachers

15 full-time

Dashboard indicators

ELA Year-over-Year

Increased

+5.5 pts DFS change

Math Year-over-Year

Maintained

-1.0 pts DFS change

Data source: California School Dashboard 2025, ELPAC 2024

Student demographics

Hispanic19.7%

White56.0%

Asian8.4%

Black1.8%

Other14.1%

Performance breakdown

Performance breakdown for Esencia Middle
Category	Percentage
Exceeded Standard	42.6%
Met Standard	33.6%
Below Standard	23.8%

What other rankings don't show you

Most rating sites report "76% proficient" for Esencia Middle and stop there. Here's what that number hides:

42.6% of students exceeded standard while 33.6% met it. That exceeded rate is 25.3 points above the state average of 17.3%. That's 3.8 points above the Capistrano Unified district average of 38.8%. The gap between "met" and "exceeded" can reveal how much a school's curriculum challenges students beyond proficiency.

Proficiency drops by 2.2 percentage points from Grade 6 to grade 8 growth — a signal that the school may not be sustaining early gains.

California's Dashboard shows ELA performance increased and Math maintained year-over-year.

Chronic absenteeism is 7.5%, better than the state average of 19.3%.

Why the exceeded vs. met split matters →