Petersen Alternative Center for Education: The scores are below where anyone wants them. Here's what they don't tell you.
Petersen Alternative Center for Education posts low test scores — and test scores are one lens among several. If this is your zoned school, the numbers below are where to start a conversation, not where to end one.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 13 | 0% | 2% | — | 52.1% | 2.9% |
| CA average · Middle School | 43 | 17% | 39% | +1.5 | 18.5% | 3.7% |
Petersen Alternative Center for Education scores 13 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 1st 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 →
🌱 Building Momentum — This label means the data doesn't clearly sort the school one way or the other — ask what the school is proud of, and what it's working on.
Most rating sites would stop at “2% proficient” and call it done. Petersen Alternative Center for Education deserves a closer read. It sits at the 1st percentile of 2,238 California middle schools — but the ranking is the least interesting thing on this page.
Test scores are one lens, and at this school they're a rough one right now. The sections below show the fuller picture — including the parts that are working.
The seven-year arc
Has stayed near the 1st percentile since 2024.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 8 | — | — | 0% | 4% |
| Grade 11 | 6% | 9% | 0% | 11% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 8 | — | — | 0% | 0% |
| Grade 11 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 6% |
The 5 things our score weighs
Ask what changed in the last two years, and what the school is asking families for. Growth shows up in these numbers a year or two after it shows up in classrooms.
- Ask how the school follows up when a student starts missing days — chronic absence often starts outside the classroom, not inside it.
- 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 Petersen Alternative Center for Education in Ceres, 8.8% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 4.8% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Petersen Alternative Center for Education outperforms its district average for low-income students by 4.0 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (2.9% Math proficient); Hispanic students (3.1% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 7.2 percentage points for hispanic students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 34 students tested.
7 of 12 student groups here are too small to report — a privacy protection, not a gap.
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.
Showing up, and staying in class
Where the path goes
Petersen Alternative Center for Education serves grades 6-12 — students can complete middle and high school here, without a separate middle-to-high transition.
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.
$5,427 per student arrives as federal Title funding — a measure of concentrated need, not school quality.
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), 0% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Petersen Alternative Center for Education a good middle school?
What are Petersen Alternative Center for Education's CAASPP test scores?
How does Petersen Alternative Center for Education rank in California?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Petersen Alternative Center for Education?
How does Petersen Alternative Center for Education compare to other schools in Ceres?
How does Petersen Alternative Center for Education serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 50
Nearby High Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 51
Private alternatives nearby
Private schools within ~10 miles. These schools do not participate in state testing and cannot be scored or ranked.
A low score doesn't tell the whole story. Read: Your School Scored Low — Here's What That Actually Means
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 | 0 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Grade 7 | 6 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Grade 8 | 24 | 0% | 4% | 21% | 75% | 4% | −42 |
| Grade 11 | 18 | 6% | 6% | 22% | 67% | 11% | −36 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 0 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Grade 7 | 6 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Grade 8 | 24 | 0% | 0% | 4% | 96% | 0% | −32 |
| Grade 11 | 18 | 0% | 6% | 6% | 89% | 6% | −18 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 33 | 0% | 0% | 36% | 64% |
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 | 34 | 8.8% | +4 | −29 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 32 | 3.1% | −0 | −36 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Petersen Alternative Center for Education ← | — | 13 | 0.0% | 2.1% | — | 2.9% |
| Barbara Spratling Middle | 2.8 mi | 40 | 10.5% | 31.0% | +28.0 | 11.4% |
| California average | — | 43 | 16.8% | 39.3% | +1.5 | 3.7% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 9 | 1 | #2192 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 42.6% | 6.7% | — |
| 2025 | 13 | 1 | #2224 | 0.0% | 2.1% | 52.1% | 2.9% | — |
- — Growth data isn't available — the state needs matched grades across years to compute it.
- — Scored here as a middle school — other grade spans appear in the data appendix.
- — Low-income students here trail the state average for their group by 29 points in ELA — worth asking how the school is closing that gap.
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 66.7% | 72.6% | +5.9pp |
| Male | 66.1% | 73.8% | +7.7pp |
| Asian | 11.1% | — | — |
| Black/African American | 81.0% | — | — |
| Hispanic/Latino | 69.1% | 74.2% | +5.1pp |
| English Learners | 68.9% | 74.5% | +5.6pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 67.3% | 71.6% | +4.3pp |
| All Students | 66.3% | 72.9% | +6.6pp |
| Students with Disabilities | — | 65.6% | — |
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