Hillcrest Middle: 68% of kids clear the bar — ahead of the state's 39%. But suspensions run 3× the state rate.
Hillcrest posts 68% meeting the standard, against 39% across the state. The number below is the one to ask about on a visit.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 62 | 36% | 68% | -5.4 | 19.3% | 9.5% |
| CA average · Middle School | 43 | 17% | 39% | +1.5 | 18.5% | 3.7% |
Hillcrest Middle scores 62 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 88th 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 →
🏫 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 “68% proficient” and call it done. Hillcrest deserves a closer read. The school sits in Sebastopol, where one in four students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
Hillcrest's low-income kids hit 61.3% 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.
As a charter, Hillcrest enrolls by application rather than address. That changes how you get in, but it doesn't change the score.
The seven-year arc
Climbed from the 67th to the 88th percentile since 2019 — past roughly 400 middle schools.
The pandemic drop is behind this school: 68% of students meet the standard today, above the 62% who did in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 77% | 77% | 58% | 57% | 80% |
| Grade 7 | 69% | 61% | 68% | 58% | 68% |
| Grade 8 | 61% | 71% | 64% | 62% | 73% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 59% | 54% | 49% | 44% | 68% |
| Grade 7 | 60% | 50% | 64% | 58% | 53% |
| Grade 8 | 48% | 55% | 44% | 58% | 64% |
The story this school is actually telling
of students met or exceeded the standard, versus 39.3% statewide.
of students were suspended, versus 3.7% statewide — a school visit will tell you more than this number.
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 5.9pp across grades; the floor slips 6.3pp. The state average falls 0.5pp over the same span. A school visit and conversation with teachers will tell you more than this number.
Hillcrest's most underrated number
61.3% 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 5 things our score weighs
Ask about the discipline philosophy and what a typical suspension is for. Numbers can't tell you whether a campus feels strict or chaotic — a visit can.
- Ask what typically leads to a suspension, and what happens before it gets there.
- Ask what changes between grade 6 and grade 8 here, and who teaches the older kids.
- 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.
How every group of students does here
At Hillcrest Middle in Sebastopol, 61.3% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 56.0% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Hillcrest Middle outperforms its district average for low-income students by 5.3 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (53.3% Math proficient); White students (82.3% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 19.2 percentage points for hispanic students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 93 students tested.
5 of 13 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 15.4pp from grade 6 to grade 8 at this school. District average: -15.4pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
Grades 7–8 students miss school at roughly one and a half times the rate of Grades 4–6 students (23.4% vs 14.7%). 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
Pay is set by the district, not the school.
What gets spent here
$243 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 297 students, this school is much smaller than the typical California middle school (≈860).
On the state's science test (CAST), 53% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Hillcrest Middle a good middle school?
What are Hillcrest Middle's CAASPP test scores?
How does Hillcrest Middle rank in California?
Is Hillcrest Middle getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Hillcrest Middle?
How does Hillcrest Middle compare to other schools in Sebastopol?
How does Hillcrest Middle serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Middle Schools
2 within ~3 mi · avg 52
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 51
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 | 93 | 37% | 43% | 15% | 5% | 80% | +33 |
| Grade 7 | 93 | 34% | 33% | 13% | 19% | 68% | +20 |
| Grade 8 | 101 | 31% | 43% | 12% | 15% | 73% | +27 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 92 | 43% | 25% | 15% | 16% | 68% | +33 |
| Grade 7 | 94 | 31% | 22% | 22% | 24% | 53% | +19 |
| Grade 8 | 100 | 41% | 23% | 19% | 17% | 64% | +32 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 101 | 26% | 28% | 42% | 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 | 93 | 61.3% | +5 | +23 |
| White | 169 | 82.3% | +5 | +20 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 73 | 53.4% | +2 | +15 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hillcrest Middle ← | — | 62 | 36.2% | 67.7% | −5.4 | 9.5% |
| Twin Hills Charter Middle | 1.8 mi | 58 | 27.7% | 60.1% | +18.9 | 4.2% |
| Brook Haven Middle | 2.8 mi | 46 | 16.0% | 45.9% | −4.7 | 6.3% |
| California average | — | 43 | 16.8% | 39.3% | +1.5 | 3.7% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 46 | 67 | #662 | 31.2% | 62.2% | 17.8% | 10.4% | -13.7pp |
| 2022 | 56 | 85 | #333 | 30.4% | 61.3% | 18.4% | 3.7% | -3.1pp |
| 2023 | 57 | 82 | #402 | 29.5% | 57.9% | 24.9% | 5.5% | +0.3pp |
| 2024 | 44 | 65 | #774 | 24.6% | 56.2% | 23.1% | 12.7% | +9.1pp |
| 2025 | 62 | 88 | #269 | 36.2% | 67.7% | 19.3% | 9.5% | -5.4pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 16.7% | 19.1% | +2.4pp |
| Male | 19.5% | 19.4% | -0.1pp |
| Asian | 0.0% | 9.1% | +9.1pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 20.0% | 12.5% | -7.5pp |
| Two or More Races | 45.0% | 25.0% | -20.0pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 21.1% | 28.6% | +7.5pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 36.2% | 25.4% | -10.8pp |
| All Students | 17.9% | 19.3% | +1.4pp |
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