Sierra Junior High: The scores are below where anyone wants them. Here's what they don't tell you.
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.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 29 | 10% | 33% | — | 31.0% | 16.3% |
| CA average · Middle School | 43 | 17% | 39% | +1.5 | 18.5% | 3.7% |
Sierra Junior High scores 29 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 20th 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 “33% proficient” and call it done. Sierra deserves a closer read. The school sits in Tollhouse, where two in five students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
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 4 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 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.
How every group of students does here
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.
6 of 14 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
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.
$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.
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 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 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Sierra Junior High a good middle school?
What are Sierra Junior High's CAASPP test scores?
How does Sierra Junior High rank in California?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Sierra Junior High?
How does Sierra Junior High compare to other schools in Tollhouse?
How does Sierra Junior High serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
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 | 71 | 15% | 38% | 23% | 24% | 54% | +6 |
| Grade 8 | 99 | 9% | 23% | 30% | 37% | 32% | −14 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 0 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Grade 7 | 71 | 11% | 18% | 32% | 38% | 30% | −4 |
| Grade 8 | 99 | 5% | 13% | 35% | 46% | 18% | −14 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 101 | 2% | 13% | 56% | 29% |
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 | 69 | 29.4% | −1 | −9 |
| White | 96 | 46.9% | −2 | −15 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 36 | 45.7% | +9 | +7 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sierra Junior High ← | — | 29 | 10.2% | 33.4% | — | 16.3% |
| California average | — | 43 | 16.8% | 39.3% | +1.5 | 3.7% |
- — Growth data isn't available — the state needs matched grades across years to compute it.
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 7.8% | 30.8% | +23.0pp |
| Male | 19.6% | 33.3% | +13.7pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 14.3% | 32.4% | +18.1pp |
| American Indian/Alaska Native | 21.7% | 50.0% | +28.3pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 12.5% | 62.5% | +50.0pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 16.5% | 53.3% | +36.8pp |
| All Students | 13.5% | 32.1% | +18.6pp |
| Two or More Races | — | 33.3% | — |
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