Juan Cabrillo Middle: Most kids here clear the bar, year after year. The question is what happens after that.
Juan Cabrillo posts 53% meeting the standard, and 31.7% 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 | 58 | 32% | 53% | +6.2 | 13.3% | 8.6% |
| CA average · Middle School | 43 | 17% | 39% | +1.5 | 18.5% | 3.7% |
Juan Cabrillo Middle scores 58 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 85th 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 →
🚀 Growth Engine — Ask how the school tracks each kid's growth year to year, and what happens when a kid stalls instead of gaining.
Most rating sites would stop at “53% proficient” and call it done. Juan Cabrillo deserves a closer read. The school sits in Santa Clara, where one in four students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
The seven-year arc
Climbed from the 73rd to the 85th percentile since 2019 — past roughly 200 middle schools.
Proficiency here is back to its pre-pandemic level — 53% meet the standard, about where the school stood in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 48% | 47% | 51% | 48% | 57% |
| Grade 7 | 63% | 58% | 54% | 60% | 56% |
| Grade 8 | 56% | 61% | 52% | 55% | 60% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 44% | 35% | 42% | 38% | 42% |
| Grade 7 | 51% | 44% | 44% | 53% | 49% |
| Grade 8 | 41% | 42% | 39% | 40% | 52% |
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 3.7pp across grades; the floor rises 2.2pp. 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 how the school challenges kids who clear the standard early. The gap between meeting and exceeding is where pacing shows.
- Ask what typically leads to a suspension, and what happens before it gets there.
- 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 Juan Cabrillo Middle in Santa Clara, 28.4% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 37.0% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Juan Cabrillo Middle trails its district average for low-income students by 8.6 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (15.6% Math proficient); Hispanic students (30.2% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 50.5 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 258 students tested.
5 of 16 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 2.7pp from grade 6 to grade 8 at this school. District average: +0.9pp.
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
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), 50% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Juan Cabrillo Middle a good middle school?
What are Juan Cabrillo Middle's CAASPP test scores?
How does Juan Cabrillo Middle rank in California?
Is Juan Cabrillo Middle getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Juan Cabrillo Middle?
How does Juan Cabrillo Middle compare to other schools in Santa Clara?
How does Juan Cabrillo Middle serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Middle Schools
2 within ~3 mi · avg 53
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 81
Nearby High Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 67
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 | 221 | 29% | 28% | 12% | 31% | 57% | +11 |
| Grade 7 | 270 | 26% | 30% | 19% | 24% | 56% | +9 |
| Grade 8 | 275 | 33% | 27% | 18% | 22% | 60% | +14 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 225 | 29% | 13% | 21% | 36% | 42% | +7 |
| Grade 7 | 267 | 33% | 16% | 17% | 34% | 49% | +15 |
| Grade 8 | 273 | 40% | 13% | 12% | 36% | 52% | +20 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 274 | 27% | 23% | 35% | 15% |
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 | 258 | 28.4% | −9 | −10 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 299 | 30.2% | −7 | −9 |
| Asian | 234 | 81.2% | +3 | +7 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Juan Cabrillo Middle ← | — | 58 | 31.7% | 52.8% | +6.2 | 8.6% |
| Marian A. Peterson Middle | 2.2 mi | 59 | 40.2% | 63.1% | −4.7 | 3.6% |
| Buchser Middle | 1.8 mi | 48 | 24.5% | 48.3% | +0.3 | 4.6% |
| California average | — | 43 | 16.8% | 39.3% | +1.5 | 3.7% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 50 | 73 | #538 | 24.8% | 50.5% | 7.6% | 7.0% | +2.1pp |
| 2022 | 54 | 82 | #388 | 24.2% | 47.8% | 18.1% | 6.3% | +10.6pp |
| 2023 | 53 | 76 | #516 | 25.3% | 47.2% | 17.0% | 6.1% | -0.8pp |
| 2024 | 53 | 80 | #446 | 27.5% | 49.1% | 13.0% | 5.8% | +4.4pp |
| 2025 | 58 | 85 | #345 | 31.7% | 52.8% | 13.3% | 8.6% | +6.2pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 7.5% | 13.7% | +6.2pp |
| Male | 7.7% | 12.9% | +5.2pp |
| Asian | 2.6% | 4.7% | +2.1pp |
| Black/African American | 0.0% | 25.0% | +25.0pp |
| White | 2.4% | 0.0% | -2.4pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 9.2% | 22.5% | +13.3pp |
| Pacific Islander | 0.0% | — | — |
| Two or More Races | 9.5% | 7.5% | -2.0pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 18.3% | 24.2% | +5.9pp |
| English Learners | 7.5% | 21.7% | +14.2pp |
| Homeless | 40.9% | 78.6% | +37.7pp |
| Military-Connected | 0.0% | — | — |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 10.1% | 22.9% | +12.8pp |
| All Students | 7.6% | 13.2% | +5.6pp |
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