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Marvin A. Dutcher Middle · TurlockPublic

Marvin A. Dutcher Middle: The score is middle of the pack. The trajectory isn't.

Marvin A. Dutcher sits mid-pack on raw proficiency — and it's climbing faster than most schools anywhere near it — and that holds when you follow the same students across grades.

1441 Colorado Avenue, 95380 (opens in new tab)·Turlock Unified·Turlock·Grades 6-8·810 students·64% low-income·2024–25 CAASPP·(209) 667-8817·Website
2019–2025 trend · CDE CAASPP
This schoolCA avg
Scope4538
% Exceeded13%17%
% Met+36%39%
Growth (2023 G6 → 2025 G8)Strong · p94Average · p50
Absence13.8%18.5%
Suspension2.0%3.7%
Scope Score
45
🚀 Growth Engine · Developing
ranked #651 statewide

Marvin A. Dutcher Middle scores 45 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 71st 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.

CDE CAASPP 2025

Most rating sites would stop at “36% proficient” and call it done. Marvin A. Dutcher deserves a closer read. The school sits in Turlock, where three in five students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.

The headline number: +10.3pp separates this year's grade 6 from its grade 8. The state average rises 0.1pp over the same span. Following the same students from 2023 G6 → 2025 G8 points the same way.

The seven-year arc

Percentile among 2,238 middle schools statewide

Climbed from the 43rd to the 71st percentile since 2019 — past roughly 500 middle schools.

CA Dashboard
ELAYellow(Increased Significantly)MathYellow(Increased)

Proficiency here is back to its pre-pandemic level — 36% meet the standard, about where the school stood in 2019.

ELA — % met or exceeded, by grade
Grade20192022202320242025
Grade 646%41%28%37%39%
Grade 745%43%35%39%51%
Grade 844%49%39%45%56%
Math — % met or exceeded, by grade
Grade20192022202320242025
Grade 630%22%14%16%20%
Grade 732%24%25%29%27%
Grade 826%23%15%21%24%

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.

14%
25%
61%
Grade 6 · 39% proficient
16%
35%
49%
Grade 7 · 51% proficient
19%
37%
44%
Grade 8 · 56% proficient

The honest read: the share exceeding rises 4.6pp across grades; the floor rises 16.3pp. 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
12.8%
State 16.8%
4.0pp below state avg
Met or exceeded
36.0%
State 39.3%
3.3pp below state avg
Growth (2023 G6 → 2025 G8)
Strong
State average
The same students gained 69 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
13.8%
State 18.5%
4.7pp below state avg
Suspension rate
2.0%
State 3.7%
1.6pp below state avg
EL proficiency (ELPAC)
31.9%
State 18.0%
13.9pp 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 93rd percentile of California middle schools in reading and the 36th in math; ours, which blends the subjects, lands around the 94th. A gap that size between reading and math 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: 94th percentile among California middle schools.94th pctile
State model · readingmatched students, grades 4-8California growth model, reading: +18 scale-score points versus the state's expectation, 93rd percentile of 7,519 reported schools.93rd pctile · +18 pts
State model · mathmatched students, grades 4-8California growth model, math: −4 scale-score points versus the state's expectation, 36th percentile of 7,518 reported schools.36th pctile · −4 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 changed — new curriculum, new principal, new program. Momentum has a cause, and a visit will find it.

  • Ask how teachers track each child's growth over the year, not just where the class lands on test day.
  • 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 Marvin A. Dutcher Middle in Turlock, 41.1% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 33.0% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Marvin A. Dutcher Middle outperforms its district average for low-income students by 8.1 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (18.4% Math proficient); Hispanic students (44.4% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 35.4 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 528 students tested.

All students at this school: 37% met or exceeded
All StudentsAll Students: this school 37%, district —, state 39%37%
Hispanic/LatinoHispanic/Latino: this school 32%, district 28%, state 32%32% · −6 vs school
Socioeconomically DisadvantagedSocioeconomically Disadvantaged: this school 30%, district 26%, state 32%30% · −8 vs school
MaleMale: this school 35%, district 34%, state 42%35% · −2 vs school
FemaleFemale: this school 40%, district 35%, state 44%40% · +2 vs school
English LearnersEnglish Learners: this school 10%, district 11%, state 11%10% · −28 vs school
WhiteWhite: this school 56%, district 47%, state 56%56% · +19 vs school
Students with DisabilitiesStudents with Disabilities: this school 16%, district 11%, state 15%16% · −22 vs school
AsianAsian: too few students to report‹11
Two or More RacesTwo or More Races: too few students to report‹11
Black/African AmericanBlack/African American: too few students to report‹11
American Indian/Alaska NativeAmerican Indian/Alaska Native: too few students to report‹11
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 20.2pp from grade 6 to grade 8 at this school. District average: +7.3pp.

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 students585 studentsHispanic or Latino students, reading: +17 scale-score points versus expectation, against −2 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 585 students.+17 pts · +19 vs typical
Low-income students514 studentsLow-income students, reading: +14 scale-score points versus expectation, against −3 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 514 students.+14 pts · +17 vs typical
English Learner362 studentsEnglish Learner, reading: +10 scale-score points versus expectation, against −5 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 362 students.+10 pts · +15 vs typical
English Only320 studentsEnglish Only, reading: +26 scale-score points versus expectation, against 0 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 320 students.+26 pts · +26 vs typical
English learners only248 studentsEnglish learners only, reading: +6 scale-score points versus expectation, against −15 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 248 students.+6 pts · +21 vs typical
Math
Hispanic or Latino students584 studentsHispanic or Latino students, math: −3 scale-score points versus expectation, against −6 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 584 students.−3 pts · +3 vs typical
Low-income students514 studentsLow-income students, math: −6 scale-score points versus expectation, against −5 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 514 students.−6 pts · −1 vs typical
English Learner361 studentsEnglish Learner, math: −5 scale-score points versus expectation, against −3 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 361 students.−5 pts · −2 vs typical
English Only320 studentsEnglish Only, math: −2 scale-score points versus expectation, against −3 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 320 students.−2 pts · +1 vs typical
English learners only247 studentsEnglish learners only, math: −3 scale-score points versus expectation, against −5 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 247 students.−3 pts · +2 vs typical
this school typical California middle school, same group| the centre tick is 0 = as predicted

— 1 more group is 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 13.8%, district 25.8%, state 18.5%13.8% · −4.7pp vs state
Suspension rateSuspension rate: this school 2.0%, district —, state 3.7%2.0% · −1.6pp vs state
Chronic absenteeism by grade band
Grades 4–610.1%
Grades 7–814.6%

Where the path goes

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

K-12 Feeder Path
▼
Middle
Marvin A. Dutcher Middle
45/100
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.

John H. Pitman HighScope 54direct feeder

The road from this school ends at John H. Pitman High, which sent 49 graduates to UC campuses last fall and teaches 19 AP subjects. Those numbers describe past cohorts — a child starting here today would reach John H. Pitman High around 2031, and 6 years is a long time for a school to hold still, and by the state's 2023 count 72% of John H. Pitman High's graduates enrolled in college somewhere, UC or not.

49 UC ENROLLEES (FALL 2025) · 19 AP SUBJECTS TAUGHT → full record on John H. Pitman 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 22:1, district 23:122:1
Teaching staff41 teachers
Avg. experience13.6 years
Fully credentialed80%
First-year teachers7%
Intern / emergency permit2.6%
Salary Schedule
Teacher salary schedule$69,264 – $131,283
Principal salary$168,526 – $186,834
Superintendent salary$265,000

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: $16,471, CA average $14,491$16,471 · spent at this school
Federal share$168 per student

$168 per student arrives as federal Title funding — a measure of concentrated need, not school quality.

District current expense · FY 2024–25$18,903 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
Instruction69%
Instruction support10%
Student services8%
Administration5%
Buildings & maintenance8%
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$13,278 per pupil
2019$12,554 per pupil
2018$12,863 per pupil
2017$11,075 per pupil
2016$10,620 per pupil

Source: NCES F-33 · Full district breakdown →

The neighborhood it serves

Context — never part of the Scope Score
Hispanic76.5%
District 61.0% · CA 56.1%
White18.5%
District 25.9% · CA 19.9%
Other2.4%
District 4.7% · CA 9.0%
Asian2.2%
District 6.6% · CA 10.2%
Black0.4%
District 1.7% · CA 4.8%
Low IncomeFree/reduced lunch eligible 63.6% (0pp below CA avg)
Neighborhood — American Community Survey
Median income$75K · CA $85K
Median home value$434K · CA $659K
Bachelor's degree+19% · CA 35%
ZIP population43,960
Median age33 years

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

Worth Knowing

On the state's science test (CAST), 30% 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 Marvin A. Dutcher Middle a good middle school?

Marvin A. Dutcher Middle has a Scope Score of 45 out of 100, placing it in the 71st percentile of California middle schools and ranked #651 statewide. 12.8% of students exceeded the state standard on the 2025 CAASPP assessment, which is 4.0 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 Marvin A. Dutcher Middle's CAASPP test scores?

On the 2025 CAASPP Smarter Balanced Assessment, 36.0% of students at Marvin A. Dutcher Middle met or exceeded the state standard in ELA and Math combined, and 12.8% exceeded it. The gap between those numbers matters: 23.2% of students are at the proficiency floor, while 12.8% 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. 1,574 student-subject combinations were assessed.

How does Marvin A. Dutcher Middle rank in California?

Marvin A. Dutcher Middle ranks #651 among California middle schools by Scope Score, placing it in the 71st 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 Marvin A. Dutcher 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 Marvin A. Dutcher Middle that cohort is 2023 G6 → 2025 G8, measured in SBAC scale-score points. Its gain ranks strong among California middle schools — roughly the 94th 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 Marvin A. Dutcher Middle?

13.8% of students at Marvin A. Dutcher 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 2.0%. 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 Marvin A. Dutcher Middle compare to other schools in Turlock?

Marvin A. Dutcher Middle scores 45/100 (71st 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 810 students. Use the schools in Turlock page or the map view to compare all middle schools nearby.

How does Marvin A. Dutcher Middle serve low-income and underrepresented students?

At Marvin A. Dutcher Middle in Turlock, 41.1% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 33.0% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Marvin A. Dutcher Middle outperforms its district average for low-income students by 8.1 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (18.4% Math proficient); Hispanic students (44.4% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 35.4 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 528 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 Turlock →

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%
12.8%
↓ vs CA 16.8% · 45th pctile
Met or exceeded · 23%
36.0%
↓ vs CA 39.3% · 47th pctile
Growth (2023 G6 → 2025 G8) · 20%
Strong
↑ vs CA average · 94th pctile
Chronic absenteeism · 5%
13.8%
↑ vs CA 18.5% · 57th pctile
▼ 1.0pp lower vs 2024
Suspension rate · 5%
2.0%
↑ vs CA 3.7% · 57th pctile
▼ 1.6pp lower vs 2024
EL proficiency (ELPAC) · 5%
31.9%
↑ vs CA 18.0% · 65th pctile
02By grade & subgroupCAASPP 2024–25 · % of tested students
ELATestedEXCMETNEARNOTMET++/CA
Grade 615314%25%27%33%39%−7
Grade 733016%35%23%26%51%+3
Grade 830619%37%24%21%56%+9
MathTestedEXCMETNEARNOTMET++/CA
Grade 61525%14%36%45%20%−15
Grade 73299%19%31%42%27%−7
Grade 830414%10%24%52%24%−8

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
Schoolwide30410%20%61%9%

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 Disadvantaged52841.1%+8+3
Hispanic/Latino60344.4%+9+6
English Learners25314.6%+1+4
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
Marvin A. Dutcher Middle ←—4512.8%36.0%+10.3pp+69 pts2.0%
Denair Middle2.2 mi295.9%28.5%+3.5pp—3.2%
California average—3816.8%39.3%+1.5pp—3.7%
04More measurescontext · not all part of the Scope Score
YearScopePctileRankExcMet+AbsentSuspGrade gap
20193243#114212.3%37.0%8.5%8.7%-3.2pp
20223045#118612.8%33.8%26.3%13.7%+4.4pp
20232331#15128.2%26.2%21.7%13.8%+6.3pp
20243243#126310.1%31.1%14.8%3.6%+6.4pp
20254571#65112.8%36.0%13.8%2.0%+10.3pp
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
Female7.5%13.6%+6.1pp
Male9.2%13.9%+4.7pp
Hispanic/Latino8.8%13.5%+4.7pp
Students with Disabilities18.6%20.8%+2.2pp
English Learners8.4%13.9%+5.5pp
Socioeconomically Disadvantaged11.2%16.6%+5.4pp
All Students8.4%13.7%+5.3pp
Asian—10.5%—
11California growth model, by student group2025 · scale-score points vs the state's prediction · shown, never scored
GroupReadingnCDE bandMathnCDE band
All Students+18754Accelerated−4753Average
Hispanic or Latino+17585Accelerated−3584Average
Socioeconomically Disadvantaged+14514Accelerated−6514Moderate
English Learner+10362Accelerated−5361Average
English Only+26320not categorised−2320not categorised
English Learners Only+6248not categorised−3247not categorised
Long-Term English Learner (grades 6-8 only)+8206Accelerated−5205Average
White+22134Exceptional−5134Average
Recently Reclassified Fluent-English Proficient Only+17114not categorised−8114not categorised
Students with Disabilities+594Accelerated−494Average
Asian+2316Exceptional+416Average

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

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