ExploreMapCompareBlogSign in

Public middle school

Sierra Junior High

Tollhouse, CA · Grades 7-8 · 184 students · Sierra Unified

The scores are below where anyone wants them. Here's what they don't tell you.

32% of tested students are Proficient or Advanced in English and 18% in math. Explore the evidence alongside the opportunities your child would use.

Math

18%

Grades 6 & 8 · Proficient or Advanced

English

32%

Grades 6 & 8 · Proficient or Advanced

Students

184

Total enrollment

Chronic absence

31%

Students absent 10% or more of school days

What are you trying to decide?

The overall score is a starting point.

Look at subject results, trends and student groups, then consider the opportunities your child would use.

View school performance →

Academic performance

What do the results tell us?

2025 results · Grades 6 & 8 · weighted by students tested within each subject.

Proficient or Advanced combines Levels 3 and 4, formerly Standard Met and Standard Exceeded. California changed the names for 2025–26; the cut scores did not. About the labels →

Share at Proficient or Advanced

0%25%50%75%100%2019: 36%2022: 19%2023: 24%2024: 18%2025: 18%2019: 61%2022: 44%2023: 39%2024: 32%2025: 32%201920222023202420250%25%50%75%100%2019: 36%2022: 19%2023: 24%2024: 18%2025: 18%2019: 61%2022: 44%2023: 39%2024: 32%2025: 32%20192022202320242025
● Math┄ English

Gaps in the lines mark years without annual results.

Exact annual results
YearMathEnglish
201936%61%
202219%44%
202324%39%
202418%32%
202518%32%

Each year describes that year’s tested students. Changes between years do not follow the same children over time. Cohort-growth evidence, when available, is labeled separately below.

Annual results and the full academic record
Where students land · CAASPP 2024–25

One in three of students here meet the standard. One in ten clear it by a lot.

ELA41% met or exceeded
Exceeded 12%Met 29%Nearly Met 27%Not Met 32%
Math23% met or exceeded
Exceeded 8%Met 15%Nearly Met 34%Not Met 43%
Exceeded Met Nearly Met Not Met
California middle schools · average17% exceeded · 40% met or exceeded
This school against the California average
2025–2025 trend · CDE CAASPP
Scope% Exceeded% Met+GrowthAbsenceSuspension
This school2410%33%—31.0%16.3%
CA average · Middle School3917%40%—18.1%3.6%
This schoolCA avg
Scope2439
% Exceeded10%17%
% Met+33%40%
Growth——
Absence31.0%18.1%
Suspension16.3%3.6%
California’s growth results and student groups
State growth model · CDE growth model 2024–25

California's own growth model places it near the 16th percentile of middle schools.

Context — never part of the Scope Score

California runs its own growth model — it follows individual children in grades 4 through 8 and compares each one against a prediction from their own prior scores. On that measure this school sits well below the middle of California middle schools in reading and math together. We show it; we don't score it.

— 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.

California's growth model, ranked against the schools it scores
State model · readingmatched students, grades 4-8California growth model, reading: −9 scale-score points versus the state's expectation, 19th percentile of 7,519 reported schools.19th pctile · −9 pts
State model · mathmatched students, grades 4-8California growth model, math: −14 scale-score points versus the state's expectation, 13th percentile of 7,518 reported schools.13th pctile · −14 pts
this school| the tick is the middle of the California field

Students & opportunity

Who shares in the school’s results?

Who it works for · CAASPP 2024–25

Low-income students here meet the ELA standard behind the same group statewide.

At Sierra Junior High in Tollhouse, 29.4% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 30.5% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Sierra Junior High trails its district average for low-income students by 1.1 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (16.2% Math proficient); White students (46.9% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 36.5 percentage points for native american students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 69 students tested.

Met or exceeded · reading and math combined
All students at this school: 32% met or exceeded
All StudentsAll Students: this school 32%, district —, state 40%32%
WhiteWhite: this school 39%, district 41%, state 56%39% · +6 vs school
MaleMale: this school 28%, district 34%, state 42%28% · −4 vs school
FemaleFemale: this school 37%, district 38%, state 44%37% · +5 vs school
Socioeconomically DisadvantagedSocioeconomically Disadvantaged: this school 23%, district 23%, state 32%23% · −9 vs school
Hispanic/LatinoHispanic/Latino: this school 34%, district 30%, state 32%34% · +2 vs school
American Indian/Alaska NativeAmerican Indian/Alaska Native: this school 6%, district 23%, state 29%6% · −26 vs school
Students with DisabilitiesStudents with Disabilities: this school 10%, district 10%, state 15%10% · −22 vs school

6 of 14 student groups here are too small to report — a privacy protection, not a gap.

this school district, same group California, same group
ShowHide Student-group results by grade
Student-group results by grade

Results compare different grade groups in the same year, relative to the lowest tested grade. They do not track the same children over time. Groups with fewer than 10 tested students per grade are not shown.

ShowHide California's growth model by student group
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
English Only149 studentsEnglish Only, reading: −8 scale-score points versus expectation, against 0 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 149 students.−8 pts · −8 vs typical
White90 studentsWhite, reading: −7 scale-score points versus expectation, against 0 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 90 students.−7 pts · −7 vs typical
Low-income students60 studentsLow-income students, reading: −7 scale-score points versus expectation, against −3 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 60 students.−7 pts · −4 vs typical
Hispanic or Latino students31 studentsHispanic or Latino students, reading: −6 scale-score points versus expectation, against −2 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 31 students.−6 pts · −4 vs typical
Math
English Only149 studentsEnglish Only, math: −15 scale-score points versus expectation, against −3 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 149 students.−15 pts · −12 vs typical
White90 studentsWhite, math: −12 scale-score points versus expectation, against +1 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 90 students.−12 pts · −13 vs typical
Low-income students60 studentsLow-income students, math: −9 scale-score points versus expectation, against −5 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 60 students.−9 pts · −4 vs typical
Hispanic or Latino students31 studentsHispanic or Latino students, math: −12 scale-score points versus expectation, against −6 for the same group at a typical California middle school, 31 students.−12 pts · −6 vs typical
this school typical California middle school, same group| the centre tick is 0 = as predicted

— 2 more groups are 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.

The daily experience

What is it like to be a student here?

Students per teacher

Student–teacher ratio is a schoolwide staffing measure, not an average class size.

The people teaching · CDE staffing 2024–25

About 15 students for every teacher here.

Context — never part of the Scope Score

Students per teacher15 · district 19
Teaching staff21 teachers
Avg. experience12.5 years
Fully credentialed84%
First-year teachers24%
Intern / emergency permit11.3%
PrincipalMatt Toews
ShowHide what the district pays
Teacher salary schedule$50,602 – $101,082
Principal salary$126,866 – $146,203
Superintendent salary$220,000

Pay is set by the district, not the school.

Attendance & discipline · 2024–25

Kids here miss more school, and get suspended more, than the state average.

31.0% of students miss a month or more of school, versus 18.1% statewide. High absence often tracks community stress — the data can't say why.

Chronic absenteeismChronic absenteeism: this school 31.0%, district 28.3%, state 18.1%31.0% · +12.9pp vs state
Suspension rateSuspension rate: this school 16.3%, district —, state 3.6%16.3% · +12.6pp vs state
This schoolDistrictCalifornia
ShowHide attendance by student group and by grade
Chronic absenteeism by grade band
Grades 7–832.1%

Resources & neighborhood

What sits behind the school experience?

Explore school spending and the district budget
What gets spent · FY 2024–25

It spends $4,321 per student, less than the California average.

Context — never part of the Scope Score

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.

$771 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.

Per-pupil spendingPer-pupil spending: $4,321, CA average $14,491$4,321 · spent at this school
Federal share$771 per student
District current expense · FY 2024–25$20,945 per student
This schoolDistrictCalifornia
Where the district's dollars go · FY 2024–25 · CDE SACS
Instruction 57%Instruction support 8%Student services 14%Administration 8%Buildings & maintenance 13%

District-level, from the district's own SACS general-ledger filing — school-by-school breakdowns aren't published by the state.

ShowHide the district's spending year by year
district detail, 2016–2020 — the newest published
2020$16,345 per pupil
2019$14,549 per pupil
2018$14,484 per pupil
2017$13,358 per pupil
2016$12,847 per pupil

Source: NCES F-33 · Full district breakdown →

The neighborhood · ACS 2024

Two in five of students here qualify for free or reduced lunch, versus three in five statewide.

Context — never part of the Scope Score

Worth knowing

At 184 students, this school is much smaller than the typical California middle school (≈860).

On the state's science test (CAST), 15% 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.

Hispanic or Latino19.0% · district 21.5% · CA 56.1%
White57.6% · district 55.3% · CA 19.9%
Asian0.5% · district 0.7% · CA 10.2%
Other22.8% · district 22.0% · CA 9.0%
Free or reduced lunch40.8% · CA 64%
Median income$75K · CA $85K
Median home value$366K · CA $659K
Bachelor's degree+23% · CA 35%
ZIP population2,218
Median age38 years

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

Culture & philosophy

What is the school’s approach?

School-stated approach · questions for your visit

Look beyond the brochure

A source-reviewed culture summary is not available for this profile yet. Ask how teaching, student support and family communication work day to day.

Read the school’s own website ↗

Family voices

What would you want another family to know about the daily experience here?

Ask a current family: “When your child needs help, how does the school respond?”

Educator voices

What should families understand about teaching, support and the school community?

Ask an educator: “How do you adapt a typical day for children with different needs?”

Bring these questions on a visit →

Compare nearby schools

What are the alternatives?

Compare schools serving the same grade stage. Private schools have no comparable state-test score.

2025 · middle schools · combined reading and math measures. Percentiles compare schools within their enrollment group.

SchoolTypePerformance bandAdvancedProficient or AdvancedDistanceSelect
Sierra Junior HighPublicNeeds Support10%33%School being viewed
Open the comparison tool →
More nearby public and private options
What should I check before applying?
District public
Confirm the attendance boundary and any permit options.
Charter
Check applications, priorities and deadlines with each school.
Private
Confirm admission requirements, tuition and financial aid.

Moving & enrollment

Which schools could serve my child?

Check your address with the district

School location and nearby schools do not establish attendance eligibility. Confirm boundaries and permit requirements with Sierra Unified.

District information →School website →

Schools across the K–12 journey

Sierra HighScope 58direct feeder

The road from this school ends at Sierra High, which teaches 6 AP subjects. That number describes past cohorts — a child starting here today would reach Sierra 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 Sierra High's graduates enrolled in college somewhere, UC or not.

6 AP subjects taught → full record on Sierra High's page
Source: College Board

Source: sabs_2016. Schools are grouped by grade stage. Nearby schools are not confirmed feeder links or address assignments. Verify the current path and eligibility with the district.

Plan your next step

What should I do next?

Worth a school visit

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 what typically leads to a suspension, and what happens before it gets there.
  • 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.
Questions

Frequently asked questions

Is Sierra Junior High a good middle school?
Sierra Junior High has a Scope Score of 24 out of 100, placing it in the 22nd percentile of California middle schools and ranked #1,704 statewide. 10.2% of students exceeded the state standard on the 2025 CAASPP assessment, which is 7.0 percentage points below the California average of 17.2%. 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 Sierra Junior High's CAASPP test scores?
On the 2025 CAASPP Smarter Balanced Assessment, 33.4% of students at Sierra Junior High met or exceeded the state standard in ELA and Math combined, and 10.2% exceeded it. The gap between those numbers matters: 23.2% of students are at the proficiency floor, while 10.2% went beyond it. Most rating sites report only the combined "proficient" number. SchoolScope surfaces the exceeded-vs-met split because it shows how many students go beyond the standard rather than only meeting it. 340 student-subject combinations were assessed.
How does Sierra Junior High rank in California?
Sierra Junior High ranks #1,704 among California middle schools by Scope Score, placing it in the 22nd percentile. This ranking is based on a weighted composite of 2025 CAASPP test performance (exceeded and met rates), grade-level growth (Grade 6 to grade 8 growth), 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.
What is the attendance and school culture like at Sierra Junior High?
31.0% of students at Sierra Junior High are chronically absent (missing 10% or more of school days), compared to the California average of 18.1%. The suspension rate is 16.3%. 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 Sierra Junior High compare to other schools in Tollhouse?
Sierra Junior High scores 24/100 (22nd 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 184 students. Use the schools in Tollhouse page or the map view to compare all middle schools nearby.
How does Sierra Junior High serve low-income and underrepresented students?
At Sierra Junior High in Tollhouse, 29.4% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 30.5% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Sierra Junior High trails its district average for low-income students by 1.1 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (16.2% Math proficient); White students (46.9% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 36.5 percentage points for native american students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 69 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.
What high school does Sierra Junior High feed into?
By attendance boundary, Sierra Junior High is zoned to Sierra High. Sierra High has a Scope Score of 58 out of 100. Boundaries come from the U.S. Department of Education's School Attendance Boundary Survey, a 2015-16 collection and the most recent national one — they are approximate and may since have changed. A boundary is also not a placement guarantee: magnet, charter, open-enrollment and inter-district transfer options mean students from one school often continue to several different ones. Confirm your address with the district before making an enrollment or housing decision. Data source: NCES School Attendance Boundary Survey, analyzed by SchoolScope.

Use the published evidence to prepare questions, then verify fit and access with the school.

Behind the evidence

Inspect the full record

Public sources, visible methods and the underlying school record. Source years and limitations stay attached to the evidence.

How the Scope Score is calculated

On a narrow screen, scroll the table sideways to see the state comparison and weights.

What the score weighs · CAASPP 2024–25

The 4 things our score weighs

What the score weighs
What we weighHereStateWeight
Exceeded standard10.2%17.2%42%
Met or exceeded33.4%40.0%23%
Chronic absenteeism31.0%18.1%5%
Suspension rate16.3%3.6%5%

Source CAASPP 2025 · California Department of Education. Measures test performance, attendance, and climate — not arts, community, or your kid. How the score is built

A closer look at the evidence

Sierra Junior High: reading the evidence

Sierra posts low test scores — and Hispanic/Latino students here beat the state average for their group by 7 points in ELA. If this is your zoned school, the numbers below are where to start a conversation, not where to end one.

Subject proficiency describes tested students, while graduation describes a graduating cohort. These figures are not successive stages followed by the same students.

Explore the underlying data →
Every number: score factors, grades, student groups and downloads
Every number · For the data nerds

Every number on this page

Score factors, grade-level breakdowns, subgroup proficiency, and nearest schools.

Sierra Junior High is ranked #1,704 statewide.

01Score factorsWeighted composite · 2024–25
Score factors
FactorSchoolStateWeight
Exceeded standard10.2%17.2%42%
Met or exceeded33.4%40.0%23%
Chronic absenteeism31.0%18.1%5%
Suspension rate16.3%3.6%5%
Exceeded standard
↓ vs CA 17.2% · index 43 · 50 = CA middle-school midpoint
Met or exceeded
↓ vs CA 40.0% · index 45 · 50 = CA middle-school midpoint
Chronic absenteeism
↓ vs CA 18.1% · index 33 · 50 = CA middle-school midpoint
Suspension rate
↓ vs CA 3.6% · index 0 · 50 = CA middle-school midpoint
02By grade & subgroupCAASPP 2024–25 · % of tested students
ShowHide table 02 — By grade & subgroup
ELATestedEXCMETNEARNOTMET++/CA
Grade 60——————
Grade 77115%38%23%24%54%+6
Grade 8999%23%30%37%32%−14
MathTestedEXCMETNEARNOTMET++/CA
Grade 60——————
Grade 77111%18%32%38%30%−4
Grade 8995%13%35%46%18%−14

We show the grade rows CDE publishes for this school. A missing grade or dash can mean the school does not serve that grade, that we hold no valid result for it, or that the tested group was too small to report. It does not mean zero.

Science (CAST)TestedEXCMETNEARNOT
Schoolwide1012%13%56%29%

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 Disadvantaged6929.4%−1−9
White9646.9%−2−15
Hispanic/Latino3645.7%+9+7
03Nearest middle schoolssorted by Scope Score · Grade gap = grade 3 vs grade 5, this year, different students; Cohort growth = one school's returning cohort tracked across grades (mostly, not exactly, the same kids), in scale-score points — that's the measurement the Scope Score weights
SchoolDistScopeEXCMET+Grade gapCohort growthSusp
Sierra Junior High ←—2410.2%33.4%——16.3%
California average—3917.2%40.0%+1.5pp—3.6%
What we can't show
  • — Growth data isn't available — the state needs matched grades across years to compute it.
04Climate by student groupchronic absenteeism · 2019 vs 2025 — the two years CDE publishes at subgroup level
ShowHide table 04 — Climate by student group
Group20192025Δ
Female7.8%30.8%+23.0pp
Male19.6%33.3%+13.7pp
Hispanic/Latino14.3%32.4%+18.1pp
American Indian/Alaska Native21.7%50.0%+28.3pp
White11.5%26.4%+14.9pp
Students with Disabilities12.5%62.5%+50.0pp
Socioeconomically Disadvantaged16.5%53.3%+36.8pp
All Students13.5%32.1%+18.6pp
Two or More Races—33.3%—
05California growth model, by student group2025 · scale-score points vs the state's prediction · shown, never scored
ShowHide table 05 — California growth model, by student group
GroupReadingnCDE bandMathnCDE band
All Students−9155Moderate−14155Moderate
English Only−8149not categorised−15149not categorised
White−790Moderate−1290Moderate
Socioeconomically Disadvantaged−760Moderate−960Moderate
Hispanic or Latino−631Moderate−1231Moderate
Students with Disabilities−2725Minimal−1225Moderate
American Indian or Alaska Native−5623Minimal−2323Minimal

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. 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.

Embed this scorecard
<iframe
  src="https://schoolscope.co/embed/school/sierra-junior-high-4123"
  width="100%" height="210" loading="lazy"
  style="border:0;border-radius:12px"
  title="Sierra Junior High — SchoolScope scorecard">
</iframe>

Free to embed with the credit link. Data updates automatically.

EXC = exceeded standard · MET+ = met or exceeded ("proficient") · Source: CA Dept. of Education · CAASPP 2024–25 · n=2,177 middle schools · Vintages: climate subgroups 2019+2025 · district finance per its label · ACS 2022 · Data updated 2026-09-27

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

Sierra Junior High

Your school plan

0 of 4 steps checked

Your checklist stays in this browser. Checking a step records your progress; it does not confirm admission or enrollment.