Mill Valley Middle: The score is strong. The trajectory is stronger.
Mill Valley pairs 78% proficiency with gains that hold up when the same students are tracked two years apart — the rare school that posts both.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 73 | 45% | 78% | +6.7 | 7.5% | 5.7% |
| CA average · Middle School | 43 | 17% | 39% | +1.5 | 18.5% | 3.7% |
Mill Valley Middle scores 73 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 95th 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 “78% proficient” and call it done. Mill Valley deserves a closer read. It sits at the 95th percentile of 2,238 California middle schools — but the ranking is the least interesting thing on this page.
Mill Valley's low-income kids hit 56.3% 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
Has held the 95th-percentile line every tested year since 2019.
This school hasn't fully recovered from the pandemic: 78% meet the standard today, versus 81% in 2019 — a gap worth asking about on a visit.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 86% | 75% | 79% | 83% | 79% |
| Grade 7 | 82% | 78% | 76% | 80% | 85% |
| Grade 8 | 86% | 77% | 80% | 83% | 81% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 74% | 61% | 68% | 70% | 67% |
| Grade 7 | 78% | 73% | 69% | 77% | 78% |
| Grade 8 | 80% | 67% | 75% | 80% | 78% |
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 2.3pp across grades; the floor rises 1.9pp. The state average falls 0.5pp over the same span. A school visit and conversation with teachers will tell you more than this number.
Mill Valley's most underrated number
56.3% 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.
The 6 things our score weighs
Ask what changed — new curriculum, new principal, new program. Momentum has a cause, and a visit will find it.
- 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 Mill Valley Middle in Mill Valley, 56.3% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 56.3% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Mill Valley Middle trails its district average for low-income students by 0.1 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (39.1% Math proficient); White students (85.4% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 28.5 percentage points for disabilities students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 48 students tested.
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 44.3pp from grade 6 to grade 8 at this school. District average: +44.3pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
Grades 7–8 students miss school at roughly twice the rate of Grades 4–6 students (8.5% vs 4.5%). Chronic absence here concentrates in the upper grades.
Where the path goes
The path below follows attendance boundaries — scores shown for each next step.
Feeder patterns derived from NCES attendance boundary data. Boundaries are approximate and may have changed — verify with your school district for current assignments.
The people teaching here
Pay is set by the district, not the school.
What gets spent here
$236 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
On the state's science test (CAST), 71% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Mill Valley Middle a good middle school?
What are Mill Valley Middle's CAASPP test scores?
How does Mill Valley Middle rank in California?
Is Mill Valley Middle getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Mill Valley Middle?
How does Mill Valley Middle compare to other schools in Mill Valley?
How does Mill Valley Middle serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 84
Nearby High Schools
2 within ~3 mi · avg 47
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 | 214 | 40% | 39% | 15% | 6% | 79% | +32 |
| Grade 7 | 239 | 38% | 47% | 13% | 2% | 85% | +37 |
| Grade 8 | 240 | 38% | 43% | 15% | 5% | 81% | +35 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 214 | 47% | 20% | 20% | 13% | 67% | +32 |
| Grade 7 | 240 | 47% | 32% | 18% | 4% | 78% | +44 |
| Grade 8 | 235 | 60% | 18% | 13% | 9% | 78% | +46 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 244 | 35% | 36% | 26% | 3% |
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 | 48 | 56.3% | −0 | +18 |
| White | 499 | 85.4% | −1 | +24 |
| Students with Disabilities | 91 | 51.7% | −7 | +35 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mill Valley Middle ← | — | 73 | 44.9% | 78.0% | +6.7 | 5.7% |
| California average | — | 43 | 16.8% | 39.3% | +1.5 | 3.7% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 72 | 96 | #80 | 45.1% | 81.2% | 4.7% | 2.8% | +3.2pp |
| 2022 | 70 | 94 | #121 | 37.1% | 71.9% | 12.6% | 1.8% | +4.6pp |
| 2023 | 74 | 94 | #121 | 38.1% | 74.5% | 15.0% | 2.0% | +4.1pp |
| 2024 | 80 | 97 | #61 | 43.4% | 78.8% | 10.1% | 4.0% | +5.4pp |
| 2025 | 73 | 95 | #110 | 44.9% | 78.0% | 7.5% | 5.7% | +6.7pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 4.7% | 7.5% | +2.8pp |
| Male | 4.7% | 7.1% | +2.4pp |
| Asian | 4.3% | 8.1% | +3.8pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 9.3% | 11.0% | +1.7pp |
| Two or More Races | 2.9% | 5.2% | +2.3pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 11.2% | 11.0% | -0.2pp |
| English Learners | 20.0% | 11.1% | -8.9pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 15.6% | 19.2% | +3.6pp |
| All Students | 4.7% | 7.3% | +2.6pp |
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