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Los Alisos Middle · NorwalkPublic

Los Alisos Middle: No single number tells this school's story. Here's the honest picture.

Los Alisos posts 38% meeting the standard and 14.3% exceeding it, against 39% and 16.8% statewide. The gaps and the bright spots below are the real read.

2019–2025 trend · CDE CAASPP
This schoolCA avg
Scope3938
% Exceeded14%17%
% Met+38%39%
Growth (2023 G6 → 2025 G8)Strong · p81Average · p50
Absence11.4%18.5%
Suspension4.4%3.7%
Scope Score
39
📈 On the Rise · Developing
ranked #941 statewide · #3 of 5 in Norwalk-La Mirada Unified

Los Alisos Middle scores 39 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 58th 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 →

📈 On the Rise — Ask how many years the improvement has held, not just the latest one — one strong cohort and a real turnaround can look identical in a single year of data.

Most rating sites would stop at “38% proficient” and call it done. Los Alisos deserves a closer read. The school sits in Norwalk, where three in four students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.

The seven-year arc

Percentile among 2,238 middle schools statewide

Climbed from the 48th to the 58th percentile since 2019 — past roughly 100 middle schools.

ELAYellow(Increased)MathYellow(Increased Significantly)

Proficiency here is back to its pre-pandemic level — 38% meet the standard, about where the school stood in 2019.

ELA — % met or exceeded, by grade
Grade20192022202320242025
Grade 647%39%35%35%39%
Grade 748%42%46%39%54%
Grade 844%42%45%45%43%
Math — % met or exceeded, by grade
Grade20192022202320242025
Grade 641%22%19%25%32%
Grade 730%27%27%25%30%
Grade 833%15%27%25%28%

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.

11%
28%
61%
Grade 6 · 39% proficient
18%
36%
46%
Grade 7 · 54% proficient
14%
29%
57%
Grade 8 · 43% proficient

The honest read: the share exceeding rises 3.4pp across grades; the floor rises 4.3pp. The state average rises 0.1pp 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

Exceeded standard
14.3%
State 16.8%
2.5pp below state avg
Met or exceeded
37.6%
State 39.3%
1.7pp below state avg
Growth (2023 G6 → 2025 G8)
Strong
State average
The same students gained 55 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
11.4%
State 18.5%
7.1pp below state avg
Suspension rate
4.4%
State 3.7%
0.7pp above state avg
EL proficiency (ELPAC)
12.0%
State 18.0%
6.0pp below 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. The two measures land in the same neighbourhood here — ours puts this school around the 81st percentile of California middle schools, the state's around the 74th in reading and math together. Two different methods agreeing is the most you can ask of one year of test data.

Both measures, ranked against every California school
Our growth measuresame cohort, G6→G8SchoolScope growth measure: 81st percentile among California middle schools.81st pctile
State model · readingmatched students, grades 4-8California growth model, reading: +9 scale-score points versus the state's expectation, 76th percentile of 7,519 reported schools.76th pctile · +9 pts
State model · mathmatched students, grades 4-8California growth model, math: +8 scale-score points versus the state's expectation, 71st percentile of 7,518 reported schools.71st pctile · +8 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 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 Los Alisos Middle in Norwalk, 44.2% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 45.2% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Los Alisos Middle trails its district average for low-income students by 1.0 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (28.7% Math proficient); Hispanic students (43.7% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 40.0 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 731 students tested.

All students at this school: 38% met or exceeded
All StudentsAll Students: this school 38%, district —, state 39%38%
Hispanic/LatinoHispanic/Latino: this school 36%, district 39%, state 32%36% · −1 vs school
Socioeconomically DisadvantagedSocioeconomically Disadvantaged: this school 36%, district 38%, state 32%36% · −1 vs school
MaleMale: this school 35%, district 42%, state 42%35% · −2 vs school
FemaleFemale: this school 40%, district 44%, state 44%40% · +2 vs school
HomelessHomeless: this school 32%, district 34%, state 22%32% · −6 vs school
English LearnersEnglish Learners: this school 5%, district 14%, state 11%5% · −33 vs school
Students with DisabilitiesStudents with Disabilities: this school 10%, district 13%, state 15%10% · −28 vs school
Two or More RacesTwo or More Races: this school 35%, district 55%, state 56%35% · −3 vs school

7 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 rises by 3.7pp from grade 6 to grade 8 at this school. District average: +5.4pp.

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
Hispanic or Latino students772 studentsHispanic or Latino students, reading: +6 scale-score points versus expectation, against −2 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 772 students.+6 pts · +8 vs typical
Low-income students709 studentsLow-income students, reading: +8 scale-score points versus expectation, against −3 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 709 students.+8 pts · +11 vs typical
English Only509 studentsEnglish Only, reading: +11 scale-score points versus expectation, against 0 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 509 students.+11 pts · +11 vs typical
English Learner251 studentsEnglish Learner, reading: +2 scale-score points versus expectation, against −5 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 251 students.+2 pts · +7 vs typical
Recently reclassified142 studentsRecently reclassified, reading: +7 scale-score points versus expectation, against +2 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 142 students.+7 pts · +5 vs typical
Math
Hispanic or Latino students771 studentsHispanic or Latino students, math: +7 scale-score points versus expectation, against −6 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 771 students.+7 pts · +13 vs typical
Low-income students708 studentsLow-income students, math: +7 scale-score points versus expectation, against −5 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 708 students.+7 pts · +12 vs typical
English Only508 studentsEnglish Only, math: +10 scale-score points versus expectation, against −3 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 508 students.+10 pts · +13 vs typical
English Learner251 studentsEnglish Learner, math: +2 scale-score points versus expectation, against −3 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 251 students.+2 pts · +5 vs typical
Recently reclassified142 studentsRecently reclassified, math: +9 scale-score points versus expectation, against −1 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 142 students.+9 pts · +10 vs typical
this school typical California middle school, same group| the centre tick is 0 = as predicted

— 5 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 11.4%, district 20.7%, state 18.5%11.4% · −7.1pp vs state
Suspension rateSuspension rate: this school 4.4%, district —, state 3.7%4.4% · +0.7pp vs state
Chronic absenteeism by grade band
Grades 4–610.0%
Grades 7–811.9%

Where the path goes

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

K-12 Feeder Path

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

Norwalk HighScope 59direct feeder

The road from this school ends at Norwalk High, which sent 20 graduates to UC campuses last fall and teaches 19 AP subjects. Those numbers describe past cohorts — a child starting here today would reach Norwalk High around 2031, and 6 years is a long time for a school to hold still, and by the state's 2023 count 42% of Norwalk High's graduates enrolled in college somewhere, UC or not.

20 UC ENROLLEES (FALL 2025) · 19 AP SUBJECTS TAUGHT full record on Norwalk 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 27:1, district 23:127:1
Teaching staff40 teachers
Avg. experience14.2 years
Fully credentialed81%
Salary Schedule
Teacher salary schedule$69,345 – $141,049
Principal salary$165,132 – $187,839
Superintendent salary$314,867

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: $16,320, CA average $14,491$16,320 · spent at this school

These measure different things: this figure is spending attributed to this campus, while district-wide figures also include central administration, districtwide programs, and the state's pension contributions made on the district's behalf — costs that never get assigned to a single school. The district number runs higher at nearly every school, not just this one.

Federal share$282 per student

$282 per student arrives as federal Title funding — a measure of concentrated need, not school quality.

District current expense · FY 2024–25$21,215 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
Instruction59%
Instruction support12%
Student services11%
Administration6%
Buildings & maintenance11%
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$14,885 per pupil
2019$14,048 per pupil
2018$13,962 per pupil
2017$13,203 per pupil
2016$12,115 per pupil

Source: NCES F-33 · Full district breakdown →

The neighborhood it serves

Context — never part of the Scope Score
Hispanic87.3%
District 81.6% · CA 56.1%
Other5.1%
District 6.4% · CA 9.0%
Asian2.8%
District 3.8% · CA 10.2%
White2.4%
District 5.7% · CA 19.9%
Black2.4%
District 2.5% · CA 4.8%
Low IncomeFree/reduced lunch eligible 78.2% (14pp above CA avg)
Neighborhood — American Community Survey
Median income$100K · CA $85K
Median home value$645K · CA $659K
Bachelor's degree+21% · CA 35%
ZIP population99,900
Median age37 years

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

Worth Knowing

On the state's science test (CAST), 26% 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 Los Alisos Middle a good middle school?

Los Alisos Middle has a Scope Score of 39 out of 100, placing it in the 58th percentile of California middle schools and ranked #941 statewide. 14.3% of students exceeded the state standard on the 2025 CAASPP assessment, which is 2.5 percentage points below the California average of 16.8%. 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 Los Alisos Middle's CAASPP test scores?

On the 2025 CAASPP Smarter Balanced Assessment, 37.6% of students at Los Alisos Middle met or exceeded the state standard in ELA and Math combined, and 14.3% exceeded it. The gap between those numbers matters: 23.3% of students are at the proficiency floor, while 14.3% 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. 1,839 student-subject combinations were assessed.

How does Los Alisos Middle rank in California?

Los Alisos Middle ranks #941 among California middle schools by Scope Score, placing it in the 58th 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 Los Alisos 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 Los Alisos Middle that cohort is 2023 G6 → 2025 G8, measured in SBAC scale-score points. Its gain ranks strong among California middle schools — roughly the 81st 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 Los Alisos Middle?

11.4% of students at Los Alisos Middle are chronically absent (missing 10% or more of school days), which is better than the California average of 18.5%. The suspension rate is 4.4%. 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 Los Alisos Middle compare to other schools in Norwalk?

Los Alisos Middle scores 39/100 (58th 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 920 students. Use the schools in Norwalk page or the map view to compare all middle schools nearby.

How does Los Alisos Middle serve low-income and underrepresented students?

At Los Alisos Middle in Norwalk, 44.2% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 45.2% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Los Alisos Middle trails its district average for low-income students by 1.0 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (28.7% Math proficient); Hispanic students (43.7% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 40.0 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 731 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

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%
14.3%
↓ vs CA 16.8% · 47th pctile
Met or exceeded · 23%
37.6%
↓ vs CA 39.3% · 49th pctile
Growth (2023 G6 → 2025 G8) · 20%
Strong
↑ vs CA average · 81th pctile
Chronic absenteeism · 5%
11.4%
↑ vs CA 18.5% · 60th pctile
▼ 3.1pp lower vs 2024
Suspension rate · 5%
4.4%
↓ vs CA 3.7% · 47th pctile
▼ 0.1pp lower vs 2024
EL proficiency (ELPAC) · 5%
12.0%
↓ vs CA 18.0% · 37th pctile
02By grade & subgroupCAASPP 2024–25 · % of tested students
ELATestedEXCMETNEARNOTMET++/CA
Grade 630211%28%27%34%39%−7
Grade 731518%36%27%19%54%+7
Grade 830014%29%27%30%43%−3
MathTestedEXCMETNEARNOTMET++/CA
Grade 630415%16%24%44%32%−3
Grade 731711%19%32%38%30%−4
Grade 830116%12%31%42%28%−4

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
Schoolwide3028%18%57%17%

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 Disadvantaged73144.2%−1+6
Hispanic/Latino80343.7%−3+5
English Learners1235.7%−9−5
03Nearest middle schoolssorted by Scope Score · Grade gap = grade 3 vs grade 5, this year, different students; Cohort growth = the same students tracked across grades, in scale-score points — that's the measurement the Scope Score weights
SchoolDistScopeEXCMET+Grade gapCohort growthSusp
Los Alisos Middle ←3914.3%37.6%−0.0pp+55 pts4.4%
Lakeside Middle2.3 mi5022.6%52.5%+2.0pp3.9%
Corvallis Middle1 mi3713.5%36.5%+1.1pp4.7%
Nettie L. Waite Middle0.9 mi297.6%25.8%+5.0pp3.4%
California average3816.8%39.3%+1.5pp3.7%
04More measurescontext · not all part of the Scope Score
YearScopePctileRankExcMet+AbsentSuspGrade gap
20193448#104713.1%40.6%8.1%8.3%-5.3pp
20222944#12049.1%31.2%18.2%4.1%-1.8pp
20233049#111710.8%33.0%19.2%6.3%+8.6pp
20243550#110411.6%32.3%14.5%4.5%+4.5pp
20253958#94114.3%37.6%11.4%4.4%-0.0pp
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
Female7.3%11.0%+3.7pp
Male9.0%11.6%+2.6pp
Asian0.0%3.8%+3.8pp
Black/African American12.0%12.5%+0.5pp
White0.0%16.7%+16.7pp
Hispanic/Latino8.2%11.5%+3.3pp
Two or More Races0.0%15.4%+15.4pp
Students with Disabilities12.2%13.6%+1.4pp
English Learners9.6%13.4%+3.8pp
Homeless9.0%16.0%+7.0pp
Military-Connected1.9%5.4%+3.5pp
Socioeconomically Disadvantaged8.3%12.8%+4.5pp
All Students8.1%11.3%+3.2pp
Filipino0.0%
11California growth model, by student group2025 · scale-score points vs the state's prediction · shown, never scored
GroupReadingnCDE bandMathnCDE band
All Students+9881Accelerated+8880Accelerated
Hispanic or Latino+6772Accelerated+7771Accelerated
Socioeconomically Disadvantaged+8709Accelerated+7708Accelerated
English Only+11509not categorised+10508not categorised
English Learner+2251Average+2251Average
Recently Reclassified Fluent-English Proficient Only+7142not categorised+9142not categorised
Homeless Youth+7141Accelerated+3141Average
English Learners Only−10109not categorised−5109not categorised
Students with Disabilities−13106Moderate−4106Average
Long-Term English Learner (grades 6-8 only)+279Average+579Accelerated
Asian+3525Exceptional+2925Exceptional
White+422Average−522Average
Black or African American+2818Exceptional+2018Exceptional
Two or More Races+1312Accelerated+212Average
Filipino+911Accelerated+1911Accelerated

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. Long-Term English Learner counts cover grades 6-8 only (CDE), so that row is not comparable to the All Students row. 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=2,238 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