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Madera County Independent AcademyCharterMadera, CAGrades K-1261 students

Madera County Independent Academy: A county community school. No Scope Score publishes here.

A Scope Score ranks schools a family can choose between. At Madera County Independent Academy, students are placed here by a district, a probation department, or a county office — so a comparative rank would measure something a family's choice never entered. We show what California reports and hold the rank.

Charter school — publicly funded, independently operated. Enrollment terms vary by charter — ask this school how it enrolls. Learn more

county community school

no score · no band · no rank — enrollment assigned, not chosen

61 students · placed by district, probation, or county

Every figure below is California's own, reported for this school and shown without a rank. Why we withhold a score →

Madera County Independent Academy is a county community school in Madera, California. SchoolScope publishes no Scope Score, performance band, archetype or ranking for schools where enrollment is assigned rather than chosen, so its CDE CAASPP 2025 results appear here unranked.

60 students were tested here on last year's CAASPP. 1.8% met or exceeded the standard; 1.8% exceeded it.

Chronic absenteeism ran 29.3%; the suspension rate was 1.3%. California reports both the same way it does for every school — this page just doesn't rank them here.

If you're trying to understand this school

Families don't choose a court or community school off this page — a student arrives through the court, a probation department, or a district referral. For a specific student, the county office of education or the district's alternative-education office is the right first call.

  • Ask how credits earned here transfer back to a student's home school.
  • Ask what continuity of services looks like when a student moves between this program and a comprehensive campus.
  • Ask what happens to a student's education plan after they leave.
CAASPP 2024–25

This school against the California average

2019–2025 trend · CDE CAASPP
% Exceeded% Met+AbsenceSuspension
This school2%2%29.3%1.3%
CA average · Middle School (for reference)17%40%18.1%3.6%
This schoolCA avg
% Exceeded2%17%
% Met+2%40%
Absence29.3%18.1%
Suspension1.3%3.6%
Who it works for · CAASPP 2024–25

How every group of students does here

Met or exceeded · reading and math combined
All students at this school: 2% met or exceeded
All StudentsAll Students: this school 2%, district —, state 40%2%
Hispanic/LatinoHispanic/Latino: this school 2%, district 7%, state 32%2%
Socioeconomically DisadvantagedSocioeconomically Disadvantaged: this school 2%, district 6%, state 32%2%
MaleMale: this school 0%, district 4%, state 42%0%
FemaleFemale: this school 4%, district 8%, state 44%4%

7 of 12 student groups here are too small to report — a privacy protection, not a gap.

this school district, same group California, same group
ShowHide Student-group results by grade
Student-group results by grade

Results compare different grade groups in the same year, relative to the lowest tested grade. They do not track the same children over time. Groups with fewer than 10 tested students per grade are not shown.

ShowHide California's growth model by student group
Attendance & discipline · 2024–25

Kids here miss more school, and get suspended less, than the state average.

Grades 7–8 students miss school at roughly one and a half times the rate of Grades 4–6 students (43.2% vs 28.6%). Chronic absence here concentrates in the upper grades.

Chronic absenteeismChronic absenteeism: this school 29.3%, district —, state 18.1%29.3%
Suspension rateSuspension rate: this school 1.3%, district —, state 3.6%1.3%
This schoolCalifornia
ShowHide attendance by student group and by grade
Chronic absenteeism by grade band
Grades 4–628.6%
Grades 7–843.2%
The people teaching · CDE staffing 2024–25

About 31 students for every teacher here.

Context — never part of the Scope Score

Students per teacher31 · district 13
Teaching staff4 teachers
Avg. experience18.0 years
Fully credentialed100%
PrincipalHugo Sanchez
ShowHide what the district pays
Teacher salary schedule$59,649 – $112,669
Principal salary$132,394 – $132,250
Superintendent salary$248,011

Pay is set by the district, not the school.

What gets spent · FY 2019–20

It spends $16,310 per student, more than the California average.

Context — never part of the Scope Score

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.

$2,512 per student arrives as federal Title funding — a measure of concentrated need, not school quality.

Per-pupil spendingPer-pupil spending: $16,310, CA average $14,491$16,310 · spent at this school
Federal share$2,512 per student
This schoolDistrictCalifornia
Where the district's dollars go · FY 2024–25 · CDE SACS
Instruction 39%Instruction support 21%Student services 16%Administration 17%Buildings & maintenance 8%

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

ShowHide the district's spending year by year
district detail, 2016–2020 — the newest published
2020$53,711 per pupil
2019$53,645 per pupil
2018$53,893 per pupil
2017$45,368 per pupil
2016$38,956 per pupil
Who is enrolled

Four in five of students here qualify for free or reduced lunch, versus three in five statewide.

Context — never part of the Scope Score

Worth knowing

At 61 students, this school is much smaller than the typical California middle school (≈860).

On the state's science test (CAST), 3% 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.

Hispanic or Latino85.3% · district 80.1% · CA 56.1%
White8.2% · district 13.9% · CA 19.9%
Black3.3% · district 2.2% · CA 4.8%
Other3.3% · district 2.9% · CA 9.0%
Free or reduced lunch88.5% · CA 64%

Contact

DistrictMadera County Superintendent of Schools
PrincipalHugo Sanchez
GradesK-12
Enrollment61 students
Nearby schools
State growth model · CDE growth model 2024–25

California's own growth model places it near the 41st percentile of middle schools.

Context — never part of the Scope Score

California runs its own growth model — it follows individual children in grades 4 through 8 and compares each one against a prediction from their own prior scores. On that measure this school sits a little below the middle of California middle schools in reading and math together. We show it; we don't score it.

— 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.

California's growth model, ranked against the schools it scores
State model · readingmatched students, grades 4-8California growth model, reading: +1 scale-score points versus the state's expectation, 49th percentile of 7,519 reported schools.49th pctile · +1 pts
State model · mathmatched students, grades 4-8California growth model, math: −5 scale-score points versus the state's expectation, 33rd percentile of 7,518 reported schools.33rd pctile · −5 pts
this school| the tick is the middle of the California field
Every number · For the data nerds

Every number on this page

Everything California reports about this school, shown without a rank — grade-level breakdowns, subgroup proficiency, climate, and the nearest schools.

01Score factors (not combined)the dimensions a Scope Score would weigh, shown against California · 2024–25
Score factors
FactorSchoolStateWeight
Exceeded standard1.8%17.2%42%
Met or exceeded1.8%40.0%23%
Chronic absenteeism29.3%18.1%5%
Suspension rate1.3%3.6%5%
Exceeded standard
vs CA 17.2%
Met or exceeded
vs CA 40.0%
Chronic absenteeism
vs CA 18.1%
Suspension rate
vs CA 3.6%
02By grade & subgroupCAASPP 2024–25 · % of tested students
ShowHide table 02 — By grade & subgroup
ELATestedEXCMETNEARNOTMET+
Grade 36—————
Grade 48—————
Grade 55—————
Grade 67—————
Grade 76—————
Grade 8284%0%7%89%4%
MathTestedEXCMETNEARNOTMET+
Grade 36—————
Grade 49—————
Grade 55—————
Grade 67—————
Grade 76—————
Grade 8280%0%14%86%0%

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

Science (CAST)TestedEXCMETNEARNOT
Schoolwide330%3%67%30%

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 Disadvantaged234.3%——
Hispanic/Latino244.2%——
03Nearest middle schoolsnearest by distance · 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
SchoolDistEXCMET+Grade gapCohort growthSusp
Madera County Independent Academy ←—1.8%1.8%——1.3%
Sherman Thomas STEM Academy2.7 mi49.5%79.0%+18.3pp—0.6%
California average—17.2%40.0%+1.5pp—3.6%
04More measurescontext · not all part of the Scope Score
ShowHide table 04 — More measures
YearExcMet+AbsentSusp
20191.5%5.4%44.7%0.8%
20220.0%0.0%40.6%1.7%
20230.0%8.3%26.1%2.5%
20240.0%6.8%21.9%1.4%
20251.8%1.8%29.3%1.3%
NO STATEWIDE TESTING 2020–21 (COVID)
What we can't show
  • — No Scope Score, performance band, archetype, or state rank publishes for this school — enrollment here is assigned, not chosen, so a comparative rank would mean something different than it does for a neighborhood school. See the Enrollment Axiom at /methodology#peer-class.
05Climate by student groupchronic absenteeism · 2019 vs 2025 — the two years CDE publishes at subgroup level
ShowHide table 05 — Climate by student group
Group20192025
Female38.0%30.2%
Male70.7%40.0%
Hispanic/Latino54.7%38.9%
White25.0%—
English Learners38.9%15.4%
Socioeconomically Disadvantaged53.5%35.1%
All Students52.7%34.9%
06California growth model, by student group2025 · scale-score points vs the state's prediction · shown, never scored
ShowHide table 06 — California growth model, by student group
GroupReadingnCDE bandMathnCDE band
All Students+133Average−533Average
Hispanic or Latino+329Average−629Moderate
Socioeconomically Disadvantaged+329Average−729Moderate
English Only+319not categorised−1219not categorised
English Learner−511Average−611Moderate

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.

EXC = exceeded standard · MET+ = met or exceeded ("proficient") · Source: CA Dept. of Education · CAASPP 2024–25 · Vintages: climate subgroups 2019+2025 · district finance per its label · ACS 2022 · Data updated 2026-09-18

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