Mira Mesa High: Most kids here clear the bar, year after year. The question is what happens after that.
Mira Mesa posts 60% meeting the standard, and 31.5% going well past it. Most kids here keep up. Fewer get pushed further. Ask the school what it does for a child who already finds the work easy.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Grad rate | College readiness | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 61 | 32% | 60% | 96.5% | 56.1% | 12.0% | 1.6% |
| CA average · High School | 44 | 16% | 36% | 87.6% | 35.4% | 30.2% | 3.6% |
Mira Mesa High scores 61 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 86th percentile of 2,160 California high schools (CDE CAASPP 2025).
Measures test performance, attendance, and climate — not arts, community, or your kid. How we score →
💪 Strong All-Around — Ask about what we don't score — class size, electives, the feel of a classroom — strong numbers everywhere on paper don't mean every classroom feels the same.
Most rating sites would stop at “60% proficient” and call it done. Mira Mesa deserves a closer read. The school sits in San Diego, where more than half of students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
Mira Mesa's low-income kids hit 66.9% 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
Has held the 86th-percentile line every tested year since 2019.
This school hasn't fully recovered from the pandemic: 60% meet the standard today, versus 67% in 2019 — a gap worth asking about on a visit.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 81% | 83% | 80% | 79% | 74% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 53% | 42% | 45% | 46% | 45% |
The story this school is actually telling
Of 100 students here: 60 are proficient by 11th grade → 97 graduate → 56 pass an AP exam. The gaps between those bars are the questions to ask.
Mira Mesa's most underrated number
66.9% 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.
The 7 things our score weighs
Ask how the school challenges kids who clear the standard early. The gap between meeting and exceeding is where pacing shows.
- 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 Mira Mesa High in San Diego, 66.9% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 42.6% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Mira Mesa High outperforms its district average for low-income students by 24.3 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (36.9% Math proficient); Hispanic students (58.0% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 70.3 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 278 students tested.
Showing up, and staying in class
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
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.
$833 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
At 2,187 students, this school is well above the typical California high school (≈1450).
On the state's science test (CAST), 40% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Mira Mesa High a good high school?
What are Mira Mesa High's CAASPP test scores?
How does Mira Mesa High rank in California?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Mira Mesa High?
How does Mira Mesa High compare to other schools in San Diego?
How does Mira Mesa High serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 69
Nearby Middle Schools
2 within ~3 mi · avg 55
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 11 | 501 | 41% | 33% | 16% | 10% | 74% | +27 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 502 | 22% | 23% | 23% | 32% | 45% | +22 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 527 | 9% | 31% | 54% | 6% |
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 | 278 | 66.9% | +24 | +29 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 131 | 58.0% | +17 | +19 |
| Asian | 123 | 82.1% | +8 | +8 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mira Mesa High ← | — | 61 | 31.5% | 59.6% | — | 1.6% |
| Scripps Ranch High | 1.7 mi | 76 | 53.0% | 77.0% | — | 1.1% |
| California average | — | 44 | 15.8% | 35.7% | — | 3.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 67 | 90 | #209 | 36.7% | 67.4% | 6.4% | 2.5% | — |
| 2022 | 63 | 89 | #229 | 33.8% | 62.5% | 20.8% | 1.7% | — |
| 2023 | 63 | 89 | #226 | 34.6% | 62.4% | 14.6% | 2.2% | — |
| 2024 | 63 | 89 | #242 | 34.4% | 62.6% | 12.9% | 2.5% | — |
| 2025 | 61 | 86 | #296 | 31.5% | 59.6% | 12.0% | 1.6% | — |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 4.1% | 10.8% | +6.7pp |
| Male | 7.3% | 11.9% | +4.6pp |
| Asian | 2.7% | 4.7% | +2.0pp |
| Black/African American | 12.4% | 23.6% | +11.2pp |
| Filipino | 0.0% | — | — |
| White | 2.8% | 6.8% | +4.0pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 10.2% | 16.8% | +6.6pp |
| Pacific Islander | 0.0% | — | — |
| Two or More Races | 6.8% | 12.9% | +6.1pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 17.6% | 21.1% | +3.5pp |
| English Learners | 8.5% | 17.6% | +9.1pp |
| Foster Youth | 33.3% | — | — |
| Homeless | 12.7% | 25.8% | +13.1pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 7.2% | 14.3% | +7.1pp |
| All Students | 5.8% | 11.4% | +5.6pp |
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