Sherman Thomas STEM Academy: The score is strong. The trajectory is stronger.
Sherman Thomas STEM Academy pairs 79% proficiency with gains that hold up when the same students are tracked two years apart — the rare school that posts both.
Sherman Thomas STEM Academy scores 89 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 99th 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 →
Most rating sites would stop at “79% proficient” and call it done. Sherman Thomas STEM Academy deserves a closer read. The school sits in Madera, where one in three students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
The headline number: +18.3pp separates this year's grade 6 from its grade 8. The state average falls 0.5pp over the same span. Following the same students from 2023 G6 → 2025 G8 points the same way.
As a charter, Sherman Thomas STEM Academy enrolls by application, not address — the score reads the same, the enrollment path doesn't.
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 rises 37.2pp across grades; the floor rises 16.2pp. The state average falls 0.5pp 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 5 things our score weighs
Ask what changed — new curriculum, new principal, new program. Momentum has a cause, and a visit will find it.
Where the path goes
The path below follows attendance boundaries — scores shown for each next step.
Estimated path based on proximity within the same district. Contact your school district for official feeder information.
Your other options
Private alternatives nearby
Private schools within ~10 miles. These schools do not participate in state testing and cannot be scored or ranked.
The community around it
Student demographics
Weighted average across tested grades. Subgroups with fewer than 15 students excluded. Data: CDE CAASPP 2024-25.
Subgroup Growth by Grade
Subgroups with fewer than 10 tested students per grade are not shown.
Funding Breakdown
Neighborhood Context
Whole Child
Source: CDE SARC, 2024-25
For the data nerdsEvery number on this page
Score factors, grade-level breakdowns, subgroup proficiency, and peer comparisons.
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 | 25 | 32% | 48% | 8% | 12% | 80% | +33 |
| Grade 7 | 24 | 38% | 42% | 17% | 4% | 79% | +31 |
| Grade 8 | 26 | 69% | 27% | 4% | 0% | 96% | +50 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 25 | 40% | 28% | 20% | 12% | 68% | +33 |
| Grade 7 | 24 | 42% | 21% | 29% | 8% | 63% | +29 |
| Grade 8 | 26 | 77% | 12% | 8% | 4% | 88% | +56 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 26 | 69% | 12% | 19% | 0% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hispanic/Latino | 51 | 86.3% | +54 | +47 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sherman Thomas STEM Academy ← | — | 89 | 49.5% | 79.0% | +18.3 | 0.6% |
| California average | — | 40 | 16.8% | 39.3% | +1.5 | 3.7% |