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Ladera Ranch Middle · Ladera RanchPublic

Ladera Ranch Middle: High scores, real growth, strong attendance. We looked for a catch — we didn't find one.

Ladera Ranch posts 50.6% exceeding the standard — versus 17.2% statewide — with climate numbers better than most. That doesn't make it perfect. It makes it worth a visit to find what numbers can't measure.

29551 Sienna Parkway, 92694 (opens in new tab)·Capistrano Unified·Ladera Ranch·Grades 6-8·1,064 students·19% low-income·2024–25 CAASPP·(949) 234-5922·Website
2019–2025 trend · CDE CAASPP
This schoolCA avg
Scope8239
% Exceeded51%17%
% Met+79%40%
Growth (2023 G6 → 2025 G8)Strong · p92Average · p50
Absence10.2%18.1%
Suspension2.4%3.6%
Scope Score
82
⭐ High Ceiling · Strong
ranked #48 statewide · #1 of 18 in Capistrano Unified

Ladera Ranch Middle scores 82 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 98th percentile of 2,177 California middle schools (CDE CAASPP 2025).

Measures test performance, attendance, and climate — not arts, community, or your kid. How we score →

⭐ High Ceiling — Ask what happens for a kid who shows up behind — a high ceiling for the top can sit right next to thin support at the bottom, and the score alone won't show you which.

CDE CAASPP 2025

Most rating sites would stop at “79% proficient” and call it done. Ladera Ranch deserves a closer read. It sits at the 98th percentile of 2,177 California middle schools — but the ranking is the least interesting thing on this page.

Ladera Ranch's low-income kids hit 74.9% 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.

The seven-year arc

Percentile among 2,177 middle schools statewide

Has held the 98th-percentile line every tested year since 2019.

CA Dashboard
ELABlue(Increased)MathBlue(Increased Significantly)

Proficiency here is back to its pre-pandemic level — 79% meet the standard, about where the school stood in 2019.

ELA — % met or exceeded, by grade
Grade20192022202320242025
Grade 686%80%80%84%84%
Grade 784%86%81%83%81%
Grade 885%82%82%81%82%
Math — % met or exceeded, by grade
Grade20192022202320242025
Grade 676%74%71%75%75%
Grade 778%77%73%80%75%
Grade 879%71%76%76%79%

The story this school is actually telling

The school, grade by grade

ELA · CAASPP 2024–25

Different students, same year — each bar is one grade's proficiency mix.

55%
29%
16%
Grade 6 · 84% proficient
41%
40%
19%
Grade 7 · 81% proficient
42%
40%
18%
Grade 8 · 82% proficient

The honest read: the share exceeding falls 12.5pp across grades; the floor slips 1.9pp. The state average rises 0.1pp over the same span. A school visit and conversation with teachers will tell you more than this number.

74.9%
Low-income · ELA · met standard

Ladera Ranch's most underrated number

74.9% 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.

Ladera Ranch low-income: 74.9%State low-income: 38.2%

The 6 things our score weighs

Exceeded standard
50.6%
State 17.2%
33.5pp above state avg
Met or exceeded
79.4%
State 40.0%
39.4pp above state avg
Growth (2023 G6 → 2025 G8)
Strong
State average
The school's returning cohort — mostly, not exactly, the same kids two years on — gained 62 scale-score points across the span. Almost every school gains points, so we rank the gain against every other California school in this level.
Chronic absenteeism
10.2%
State 18.1%
7.9pp below state avg
Suspension rate
2.4%
State 3.6%
1.2pp below state avg
EL proficiency (ELPAC)
52.4%
State 18.0%
34.4pp above state avg

California's own answer to the same question

Context — never part of the Scope Score

California runs its own growth model, following individual children in grades 4 through 8 rather than comparing school-wide averages the way we do — and its two subjects part company here. It puts this school around the 57th percentile of California middle schools in reading and the 89th in math; ours, which blends the subjects, lands around the 92nd. A gap that size between math and reading in one building is worth asking about directly — one year of data can't tell you whether it is the teaching, the cohort, or noise.

Both measures, ranked against every California school
Our growth measuresame cohort, G6→G8SchoolScope growth measure: 92nd percentile among California middle schools.92nd pctile
State model · readingmatched students, grades 4-8California growth model, reading: +3 scale-score points versus the state's expectation, 57th percentile of 7,519 reported schools.57th pctile · +3 pts
State model · mathmatched students, grades 4-8California growth model, math: +17 scale-score points versus the state's expectation, 89th percentile of 7,518 reported schools.89th pctile · +17 pts
this school| the tick is the middle of the California field

— pts vs expected is scale-score points above or below what California's model predicted for these same children from their own prior-year scores. It is not a percentage and not a percent of anything. A typical California middle school lands at −1 in reading, and the middle half of them fall between −8 and +6 — the spread is wide, so read the rank, not the sign. CDE blends two consecutive years into each published figure, so adjacent years share input data and no year-over-year trend can honestly be drawn from them. It covers grades 4-8 only, and it is not part of the Scope Score — we assessed it and left it out: it tracks school demographics roughly three times as strongly as our own growth measure does, and one published year is not enough to test how stable it is.

Worth a school visit

Ask what the school is working on next. Strong numbers tell you where a school is, not where it's going.

  • Ask how teachers track each child's growth over the year, not just where the class lands on test day.
  • 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.
  • Ask what a typical day looks like for a new student in the first few weeks.

How every group of students does here

At Ladera Ranch Middle in Ladera Ranch, 74.9% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 55.1% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Ladera Ranch Middle outperforms its district average for low-income students by 19.7 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (64.5% Math proficient); White students (82.6% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 42.4 percentage points for disabilities students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 195 students tested.

All students at this school: 79% met or exceeded
All StudentsAll Students: this school 79%, district —, state 40%79%
WhiteWhite: this school 80%, district 74%, state 56%80% · +0 vs school
MaleMale: this school 79%, district 66%, state 42%79% · −0 vs school
FemaleFemale: this school 79%, district 69%, state 44%79% · −0 vs school
Socioeconomically DisadvantagedSocioeconomically Disadvantaged: this school 70%, district 49%, state 32%70% · −10 vs school
Hispanic/LatinoHispanic/Latino: this school 63%, district 45%, state 32%63% · −16 vs school
Two or More RacesTwo or More Races: this school 83%, district 76%, state 56%83% · +4 vs school
AsianAsian: this school 91%, district 86%, state 72%91% · +11 vs school
Students with DisabilitiesStudents with Disabilities: this school 37%, district 32%, state 15%37% · −43 vs school
Military-ConnectedMilitary-Connected: this school 82%, district 60%, state 46%82% · +3 vs school

6 of 16 student groups here are too small to report — a privacy protection, not a gap.

this school district, same group California, same group
Subgroup growth by grade

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 18.5pp from grade 6 to grade 8 at this school. District average: +5.7pp.

The state's growth model, by student group

California follows these children individually and predicts each one's score from their own prior year. Each row is read against the same group at a typical California middle school — not against zero, and not against this school's all-students figure, because the state's expectation already differs by group.

Reading
English Only822 studentsEnglish Only, reading: +2 scale-score points versus expectation, against 0 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 822 students.+2 pts · +2 vs typical
White619 studentsWhite, reading: +3 scale-score points versus expectation, against 0 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 619 students.+3 pts · +3 vs typical
Low-income students183 studentsLow-income students, reading: +7 scale-score points versus expectation, against −3 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 183 students.+7 pts · +10 vs typical
Students with disabilities109 studentsStudents with disabilities, reading: +8 scale-score points versus expectation, against −13 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 109 students.+8 pts · +21 vs typical
Hispanic or Latino students104 studentsHispanic or Latino students, reading: +1 scale-score points versus expectation, against −2 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 104 students.+1 pts · +3 vs typical
Math
English Only822 studentsEnglish Only, math: +15 scale-score points versus expectation, against −3 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 822 students.+15 pts · +18 vs typical
White618 studentsWhite, math: +16 scale-score points versus expectation, against +1 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 618 students.+16 pts · +15 vs typical
Low-income students184 studentsLow-income students, math: +16 scale-score points versus expectation, against −5 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 184 students.+16 pts · +21 vs typical
Students with disabilities108 studentsStudents with disabilities, math: +13 scale-score points versus expectation, against −8 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 108 students.+13 pts · +21 vs typical
Hispanic or Latino students104 studentsHispanic or Latino students, math: +14 scale-score points versus expectation, against −6 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 104 students.+14 pts · +20 vs typical
this school typical California middle school, same group| the centre tick is 0 = as predicted

— 2 more groups are reported here with between 11 and 29 students. We hold those back on purpose: at that size the figure swings about 17 points on its own, and a quarter of such groups land past the state's top or bottom cut point by chance alone. They are listed with their student counts in the data appendix. — A group not listed at all had fewer than 11 students with a growth score, so California published nothing for it here. That is a privacy protection, not a judgment about those students. — Context only. None of this enters the Scope Score.

Showing up, and staying in class

Chronic absenteeismChronic absenteeism: this school 10.2%, district 13.1%, state 18.1%10.2% · −7.9pp vs state
Suspension rateSuspension rate: this school 2.4%, district —, state 3.6%2.4% · −1.2pp vs state
Chronic absenteeism by grade band
Grades 4–68.0%
Grades 7–811.1%

Where the path goes

The path below follows attendance boundaries — scores shown for each next step.

K-12 Feeder Path
▼
Middle
Ladera Ranch Middle
82/100
This school

Feeder patterns derived from NCES attendance boundary data. Boundaries are approximate and may have changed — verify with your school district for current assignments.

San Juan Hills HighScope 74estimated path

The road from this school ends at San Juan Hills High, which sent 65 graduates to UC campuses last fall and teaches 26 AP subjects. Those numbers describe past cohorts — a child starting here today would reach San Juan Hills High around 2031, and 6 years is a long time for a school to hold still, and by the state's 2023 count 84% of San Juan Hills High's graduates enrolled in college somewhere, UC or not.

65 UC ENROLLEES (FALL 2025) · 26 AP SUBJECTS TAUGHT → full record on San Juan Hills High's page
Source: UC & College Board

The people teaching here

Context — never part of the Scope Score
Student : teacherStudent to teacher ratio: this school 23:1, district 23:123:1
PrincipalCyndie Steinert
Teaching staff44 teachers
Avg. experience19.8 years
Fully credentialed92%
First-year teachers2%
Salary Schedule
Teacher salary schedule$65,219 – $130,638
Principal salary$185,421 – $206,216
Superintendent salary$348,333

Pay is set by the district, not the school.

What gets spent here

Context — never part of the Scope Score
Per-pupil spendingPer-pupil spending: $18,618, CA average $14,491$18,618 · spent at this school
Federal share$302 per student

$302 per student arrives as federal Title funding — a measure of concentrated need, not school quality.

District current expense · FY 2024–25$17,166 per student

The district's current expense of education per student, from CDE's annual SACS filing — the freshest district spending figure the state publishes.

Where the district's dollars go · FY 2024–25 · CDE SACS
Instruction64%
Instruction support10%
Student services10%
Administration5%
Buildings & maintenance9%
Other1%

District-level, from the district's own SACS general-ledger filing — school-by-school breakdowns aren't published by the state.

district detail, 2016–2020 — the newest published
2020$12,431 per pupil
2019$11,341 per pupil
2018$10,665 per pupil
2017$9,388 per pupil
2016$8,875 per pupil

Source: NCES F-33 · Full district breakdown →

The neighborhood it serves

Context — never part of the Scope Score
White64.0%
District 51.0% · CA 19.9%
Other13.4%
District 14.2% · CA 9.0%
Hispanic11.4%
District 26.7% · CA 56.1%
Asian10.2%
District 7.4% · CA 10.2%
Black0.9%
District 0.7% · CA 4.8%
Low IncomeFree/reduced lunch eligible 19.0% (45pp below CA avg)
Neighborhood — American Community Survey
Median income$190K · CA $85K
Median home value$1.13M · CA $659K
Bachelor's degree+66% · CA 35%
ZIP population35,764
Median age36 years

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates (2024) · ZIP-level

Worth Knowing

On the state's science test (CAST), 65% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 and once in high school, and it never enters the Scope Score.

Frequently asked questions

Is Ladera Ranch Middle a good middle school?

Ladera Ranch Middle has a Scope Score of 82 out of 100, placing it in the 98th percentile of California middle schools and ranked #48 statewide. 50.6% of students exceeded the state standard on the 2025 CAASPP assessment, which is 33.5 percentage points above the California average of 17.2%. The Scope Score weights 6 dimensions for middle schools: exceeded standard (42%), met or exceeded (proficient) (23%), grade 6-to-8 growth (20%), chronic absenteeism (5%), suspension rate (5%), and ELPAC English Learner proficiency (5%). Data source: California Department of Education CAASPP 2025, analyzed by SchoolScope.

What are Ladera Ranch Middle's CAASPP test scores?

On the 2025 CAASPP Smarter Balanced Assessment, 79.4% of students at Ladera Ranch Middle met or exceeded the state standard in ELA and Math combined, and 50.6% exceeded it. The gap between those numbers matters: 28.7% of students are at the proficiency floor, while 50.6% pushed past it. Most rating sites report only the combined "proficient" number. SchoolScope surfaces the exceeded-vs-met split because it reveals whether a school's curriculum challenges students beyond minimum proficiency or paces toward it. 2,018 student-subject combinations were assessed.

How does Ladera Ranch Middle rank in California?

Ladera Ranch Middle ranks #48 among California middle schools by Scope Score, placing it in the 98th percentile. This ranking is based on a weighted composite of 2025 CAASPP test performance (exceeded and met rates), same-cohort growth (2023 G6 → 2025 G8), chronic absenteeism, and suspension rate. Unlike single-number ratings, the Scope Score shows what drives the ranking so parents can decide what matters most to their family. See full methodology.

Is Ladera Ranch Middle getting better or worse?

SchoolScope follows the same cohort of students across grades rather than comparing two different grades in the same year. At Ladera Ranch Middle that cohort is 2023 G6 → 2025 G8, measured in SBAC scale-score points. Its gain ranks strong among California middle schools — roughly the 92nd percentile, ahead of the typical school at this level. Read the ranking, not the raw point gain: scale scores rise with age, so nearly every school posts a positive number and only the relative position tells you anything. Growth is weighted at 20% in the middle Scope Score because it is the least demographically confounded signal available — it tracks change over time rather than the level students arrived at. See full methodology.

What is the attendance and school culture like at Ladera Ranch Middle?

10.2% of students at Ladera Ranch Middle are chronically absent (missing 10% or more of school days), which is better than the California average of 18.1%. The suspension rate is 2.4%. SchoolScope includes these culture metrics in the Scope Score because they reflect day-to-day school experience in ways test scores alone cannot.

How does Ladera Ranch Middle compare to other schools in Ladera Ranch?

Ladera Ranch Middle scores 82/100 (98th percentile) among California middle schools. To compare with nearby schools, SchoolScope shows the same metrics side by side: exceeded rate, proficiency, growth trajectory, and school culture indicators. The school serves 1,064 students. Use the schools in Ladera Ranch page or the map view to compare all middle schools nearby.

How does Ladera Ranch Middle serve low-income and underrepresented students?

At Ladera Ranch Middle in Ladera Ranch, 74.9% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 55.1% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Ladera Ranch Middle outperforms its district average for low-income students by 19.7 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (64.5% Math proficient); White students (82.6% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 42.4 percentage points for disabilities students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 195 students tested. SchoolScope shows disaggregated test scores by demographic subgroup so you can see how a school performs for your child's specific group — not just the school-wide average. Subgroup data is context, not part of the Scope Score: we don't penalize schools for who they serve. See our equity approach.

Your other options

All schools in Ladera Ranch →

Private alternatives nearby

Private schools within ~10 miles. These schools do not participate in state testing and cannot be scored or ranked.

For the data nerds

Every number on this page

Score factors, grade-level breakdowns, subgroup proficiency, and nearest schools.

01Score factorsWeighted composite · 2024–25
Exceeded standard · 42%
50.6%
↑ vs CA 17.2% · 88th pctile
Met or exceeded · 23%
79.4%
↑ vs CA 40.0% · 82th pctile
Growth (2023 G6 → 2025 G8) · 20%
Strong
↑ vs CA average · 92th pctile
Chronic absenteeism · 5%
10.2%
↑ vs CA 18.1% · 62th pctile
▼ 2.2pp lower vs 2024
Suspension rate · 5%
2.4%
↑ vs CA 3.6% · 55th pctile
▼ 0.7pp lower vs 2024
EL proficiency (ELPAC) · 5%
52.4%
↑ vs CA 18.0% · 93th pctile
02By grade & subgroupCAASPP 2024–25 · % of tested students
ELATestedEXCMETNEARNOTMET++/CA
Grade 634655%29%13%3%84%+38
Grade 731941%40%13%6%81%+33
Grade 834242%40%12%6%82%+36
MathTestedEXCMETNEARNOTMET++/CA
Grade 634752%23%18%7%75%+41
Grade 732351%24%18%7%75%+41
Grade 834162%17%14%6%79%+47

We show the grade rows CDE publishes for this school. A missing grade or dash can mean the school does not serve that grade, no valid result was published, or the tested group was too small to report. It does not mean zero.

Science (CAST)TestedEXCMETNEARNOT
Schoolwide34234%32%33%2%

CAST is tested in grades 5 and 8, then once in grade 10, 11, or 12. This row is the school's all-student aggregate. Not part of the Scope Score.

Subgroup · ELATestedMET+vs districtvs CA
Socioeconomically Disadvantaged19574.9%+20+37
White64382.6%+4+21
Hispanic/Latino11567.0%+15+28
03Nearest middle schoolssorted by Scope Score · Grade gap = grade 3 vs grade 5, this year, different students; Cohort growth = one school's returning cohort tracked across grades (mostly, not exactly, the same kids), in scale-score points — that's the measurement the Scope Score weights
SchoolDistScopeEXCMET+Grade gapCohort growthSusp
Ladera Ranch Middle ←—8250.6%79.4%+1.0pp+62 pts2.4%
Las Flores Middle2.3 mi7345.0%73.2%+3.0pp—6.0%
Carl Hankey Middle1.5 mi5935.8%64.0%−9.4pp—3.2%
California average—3917.2%40.0%+1.5pp—3.6%
04More measurescontext · not all part of the Scope Score
YearScopePctileRankExcMet+AbsentSuspGrade gap
20198197#5450.0%81.3%5.0%2.3%+1.4pp
20227997#7244.2%78.5%14.6%3.6%-0.1pp
20237897#7644.5%77.2%13.8%2.7%+3.8pp
20247897#6549.4%79.8%12.4%3.1%-1.3pp
20258298#4850.6%79.4%10.2%2.4%+1.0pp
Grade gap = this year's grade 3 vs grade 5 result, two different sets of students, not a trend for any one child — it is not the measurement the Scope Score's growth dimension uses. See §01 above and /methodology#verdicts for the school's actual scored (cohort) growth.
NO STATEWIDE TESTING 2020–21 (COVID) · SCORE AND PERCENTILE ARE RELATIVE TO EACH YEAR'S FIELD
05Climate by student groupchronic absenteeism · 2019 vs 2025 — the two years CDE publishes at subgroup level
Group20192025Δ
Female4.7%10.5%+5.8pp
Male5.0%9.7%+4.7pp
Asian0.8%6.3%+5.5pp
Filipino6.7%7.9%+1.2pp
White2.4%0.0%-2.4pp
Hispanic/Latino6.1%14.3%+8.2pp
Two or More Races7.9%11.5%+3.6pp
Students with Disabilities13.1%17.2%+4.1pp
English Learners9.1%14.7%+5.6pp
Homeless15.0%8.3%-6.7pp
Socioeconomically Disadvantaged12.7%16.1%+3.4pp
All Students4.9%10.1%+5.2pp
11California growth model, by student group2025 · scale-score points vs the state's prediction · shown, never scored
GroupReadingnCDE bandMathnCDE band
All Students+3966Average+17966Accelerated
English Only+2822not categorised+15822not categorised
White+3619Average+16618Accelerated
Socioeconomically Disadvantaged+7183Accelerated+16184Accelerated
Students with Disabilities+8109Accelerated+13108Accelerated
Hispanic or Latino+1104Average+14104Accelerated
Asian+6103Accelerated+33103Exceptional
Two or More Races+1071Accelerated+1272Accelerated
English Learner+1150Accelerated+2950Exceptional
Recently Reclassified Fluent-English Proficient Only+1837not categorised+3537not categorised
Filipino+1622Accelerated+2622Exceptional
English Learners Only−613not categorised+1313not categorised

Whole scale-score points above or below what CDE's model predicted for these same children from their own prior-year scores — not a percentage, not a percentile. Statewide a typical school lands near +1 with a spread of about 13 points either side, so read a figure against its group's own typical value, not against zero. Muted rows have fewer than 30 students with a growth score — published by CDE, held back from the narrative sections above because at that size the figure swings about 17 points on its own. “Not categorised” is CDE assigning no band — English Only, Recently Reclassified, and English Learners Only receive a value and no band, for every school in the state. It is not a missing number. Most figures blend two consecutive years, so adjacent published years share input data and no trend line can honestly be drawn across them. A group absent from this table had fewer than 11 students with a growth score and was never published. Grades 4-8 only. None of this enters the Scope Score — it is more strongly correlated with school demographics than our own growth measure, and one published year is not enough to test its reliability.

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EXC = exceeded standard · MET+ = met or exceeded ("proficient") · Source: CA Dept. of Education · CAASPP 2024–25 · n=2,177 middle schools · Vintages: climate subgroups 2019+2025 · district finance per its label · ACS 2022 · Data updated 2026-07-03methodology · data updates · CSV · report issue

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

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