Sparks Middle: No single number tells this school's story. Here's the honest picture.
Sparks posts 30% meeting the standard and 8.3% exceeding it, against 39% and 16.8% statewide. The gaps and the bright spots below are the real read.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 38 | 8% | 30% | +6.9 | 24.0% | 3.9% |
| CA average · Middle School | 43 | 17% | 39% | +1.5 | 18.5% | 3.7% |
Sparks Middle scores 38 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 42nd 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 →
📈 On the Rise — Ask how many years the improvement has held, not just the latest one — one strong cohort and a real turnaround can look identical in a single year of data.
Most rating sites would stop at “30% proficient” and call it done. Sparks deserves a closer read. The school sits in La Puente, where three in four students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
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 3.9pp across grades; the floor rises 12.1pp. 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 6 things our score weighs
Ask what the school is working on next. Strong numbers tell you where a school is, not where it's going.
- 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 Sparks Middle in La Puente, 39.8% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 45.0% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Sparks Middle trails its district average for low-income students by 5.2 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (20.1% Math proficient); Hispanic students (38.9% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 32.7 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 499 students tested.
7 of 15 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.
Low-income student ELA proficiency rises by 13.0pp from grade 6 to grade 8 at this school. District average: +7.7pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
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.
The people teaching here
Pay is set by the district, not the school.
What gets spent here
$548 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
On the state's science test (CAST), 13% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Sparks Middle a good middle school?
What are Sparks Middle's CAASPP test scores?
How does Sparks Middle rank in California?
Is Sparks Middle getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Sparks Middle?
How does Sparks Middle compare to other schools in La Puente?
How does Sparks Middle serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Middle Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 43
Nearby Elementary 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 | 183 | 8% | 23% | 26% | 43% | 31% | −15 |
| Grade 7 | 207 | 8% | 36% | 25% | 31% | 44% | −4 |
| Grade 8 | 199 | 12% | 31% | 27% | 30% | 43% | −3 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 181 | 6% | 13% | 25% | 56% | 19% | −16 |
| Grade 7 | 206 | 9% | 13% | 26% | 51% | 22% | −12 |
| Grade 8 | 200 | 6% | 15% | 23% | 57% | 21% | −12 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 200 | 1% | 12% | 68% | 20% |
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 | 499 | 39.8% | −5 | +2 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 543 | 38.9% | −3 | +0 |
| English Learners | 118 | 6.8% | −5 | −4 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sparks Middle ← | — | 38 | 8.3% | 30.0% | +6.9 | 3.9% |
| Grandview, College Preparatory Academy | 2 mi | 44 | 8.0% | 28.8% | +4.3 | 1.6% |
| Sierra Vista Middle | 3 mi | 43 | 13.9% | 36.9% | +1.0 | 6.0% |
| Sierra Vista Middle | 0.7 mi | 42 | 12.7% | 30.9% | +9.2 | 9.5% |
| California average | — | 43 | 16.8% | 39.3% | +1.5 | 3.7% |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 5.7% | 22.6% | +16.9pp |
| Male | 8.6% | 25.5% | +16.9pp |
| Asian | 0.0% | 9.1% | +9.1pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 7.0% | 24.9% | +17.9pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 20.6% | 33.0% | +12.4pp |
| English Learners | 8.6% | 20.5% | +11.9pp |
| Foster Youth | 28.6% | — | — |
| Homeless | 16.2% | 34.0% | +17.8pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 7.4% | 25.7% | +18.3pp |
| All Students | 7.2% | 24.1% | +16.9pp |
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