Katherine Johnson STEM Academy: This school runs ahead of the state average. The bar itself is the harder conversation.
Katherine Johnson STEM Academy posts 42% meeting the standard against 39% statewide — ahead of most, with real headroom above the bar.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 49 | 19% | 42% | +9.4 | 20.5% | 4.7% |
| CA average · Middle School | 43 | 17% | 39% | +1.5 | 18.5% | 3.7% |
Katherine Johnson STEM Academy scores 49 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 69th 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 “42% proficient” and call it done. Katherine Johnson STEM Academy deserves a closer read. The school sits in Los Angeles, where two-thirds of students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
The seven-year arc
Climbed from the 59th to the 69th percentile since 2019 — past roughly 100 middle schools.
The pandemic drop is behind this school: 42% of students meet the standard today, above the 36% who did in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 35% | 24% | 30% | 21% | 43% |
| Grade 7 | 40% | 43% | 39% | 26% | 33% |
| Grade 8 | 50% | 53% | 41% | 32% | 45% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 24% | 16% | 30% | 21% | 38% |
| Grade 7 | 35% | 17% | 36% | 34% | 38% |
| Grade 8 | 30% | 18% | 11% | 30% | 55% |
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 falls 4.6pp across grades; the proficiency floor barely moves. The state average falls 0.5pp over the same span. A school visit and conversation with teachers will tell you more than this number.
The 5 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 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 Katherine Johnson STEM Academy in Los Angeles, 36.2% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 40.9% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Katherine Johnson STEM Academy trails its district average for low-income students by 4.7 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (39.8% Math proficient); Black students (35.3% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 7.4 percentage points for black students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 94 students tested.
7 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 falls by 2.7pp from grade 6 to grade 8 at this school. District average: -0.3pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
Grades 7–8 students miss school at roughly twice the rate of Grades 4–6 students (26.1% vs 10.4%). 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
$990 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 133 students, this school is much smaller than the typical California middle school (≈860).
On the state's science test (CAST), 23% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Katherine Johnson STEM Academy a good middle school?
What are Katherine Johnson STEM Academy's CAASPP test scores?
How does Katherine Johnson STEM Academy rank in California?
Is Katherine Johnson STEM Academy getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Katherine Johnson STEM Academy?
How does Katherine Johnson STEM Academy compare to other schools in Los Angeles?
How does Katherine Johnson STEM Academy serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Middle Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 58
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 | 46 | 17% | 26% | 33% | 24% | 43% | −3 |
| Grade 7 | 40 | 5% | 28% | 28% | 40% | 33% | −15 |
| Grade 8 | 47 | 13% | 32% | 34% | 21% | 45% | −1 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 45 | 22% | 16% | 20% | 42% | 38% | +3 |
| Grade 7 | 40 | 23% | 15% | 30% | 33% | 38% | +4 |
| Grade 8 | 47 | 32% | 23% | 15% | 30% | 55% | +23 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 47 | 2% | 21% | 60% | 17% |
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 | 94 | 36.2% | −5 | −2 |
| Black/African American | 68 | 35.3% | −1 | +3 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 27 | 33.3% | −8 | −6 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Katherine Johnson STEM Academy ← | — | 49 | 18.6% | 41.9% | +9.4 | 4.7% |
| El Segundo Middle | 2.9 mi | 74 | 44.1% | 74.4% | +6.2 | 0.8% |
| ICEF Vista Middle Academy | 2.6 mi | 65 | 25.8% | 60.9% | +12.9 | 0.7% |
| Marina del Rey Middle | 2 mi | 34 | 6.1% | 27.4% | −5.6 | 8.6% |
| California average | — | 43 | 16.8% | 39.3% | +1.5 | 3.7% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 42 | 59 | #831 | 12.6% | 35.8% | 14.0% | 2.8% | +10.4pp |
| 2022 | 33 | 41 | #1281 | 8.9% | 28.4% | 28.3% | 5.4% | +15.3pp |
| 2023 | 32 | 29 | #1560 | 8.6% | 31.3% | 20.5% | 5.9% | -3.4pp |
| 2024 | 29 | 28 | #1595 | 10.0% | 27.2% | 15.8% | 5.1% | +9.5pp |
| 2025 | 49 | 69 | #701 | 18.6% | 41.9% | 20.5% | 4.7% | +9.4pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 14.7% | 10.3% | -4.4pp |
| Male | 13.7% | 28.0% | +14.3pp |
| Black/African American | 12.5% | 24.3% | +11.8pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 20.0% | 11.1% | -8.9pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 9.7% | 33.3% | +23.6pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 18.9% | 26.0% | +7.1pp |
| All Students | 14.1% | 20.7% | +6.6pp |
| Two or More Races | — | 26.7% | — |
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