Stauffer (Mary R.) Middle: This school runs ahead of the state average. The bar itself is the harder conversation.
Stauffer (Mary R.) posts 44% meeting the standard against 39% statewide — ahead of most, with real headroom above the bar.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 43 | 19% | 44% | -6.9 | 21.6% | 6.9% |
| CA average · Middle School | 43 | 17% | 39% | +1.5 | 18.5% | 3.7% |
Stauffer (Mary R.) Middle scores 43 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 54th 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 “44% proficient” and call it done. Stauffer (Mary R.) deserves a closer read. The school sits in Downey, where four in five students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
The headline number: 30.2% of English learners reached the top ELPAC level, versus 18.0% statewide.
The seven-year arc
Climbed from the 38th to the 54th percentile since 2019 — past roughly 200 middle schools.
Proficiency here is back to its pre-pandemic level — 44% meet the standard, about where the school stood in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 50% | 50% | 45% | 49% | 54% |
| Grade 7 | 52% | 50% | 57% | 57% | 49% |
| Grade 8 | 45% | 43% | 45% | 56% | 49% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 38% | 37% | 33% | 34% | 42% |
| Grade 7 | 38% | 28% | 38% | 36% | 41% |
| Grade 8 | 32% | 25% | 25% | 33% | 32% |
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 holds steady across grades; the floor slips 4.5pp. The state average falls 0.5pp over the same span. A school visit and conversation with teachers will tell you more than this number.
The 6 things our score weighs
Ask how the school challenges kids who clear the standard early. The gap between meeting and exceeding is where pacing shows.
- Ask what changes between grade 6 and grade 8 here, and who teaches the older kids.
- 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 Stauffer (Mary R.) Middle in Downey, 47.0% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 51.7% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Stauffer (Mary R.) Middle trails its district average for low-income students by 4.7 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (35.0% Math proficient); Hispanic students (50.1% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 42.2 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 1,045 students tested.
7 of 17 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 falls by 2.3pp from grade 6 to grade 8 at this school. District average: -3.4pp.
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 road from this school ends at Warren (Earl) High, which sent 50 graduates to UC campuses last fall and teaches 27 AP subjects. Those numbers describe past cohorts — a child starting here today would reach Warren (Earl) High around 2031, and 6 years is a long time for a school to hold still, and by the state's 2023 count 54% of Warren (Earl) High's graduates enrolled in college somewhere, UC or not.
The people teaching here
Pay is set by the district, not the school.
What gets spent here
$251 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 1,329 students, this school is well above the typical California middle school (≈860).
On the state's science test (CAST), 35% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Stauffer (Mary R.) Middle a good middle school?
What are Stauffer (Mary R.) Middle's CAASPP test scores?
How does Stauffer (Mary R.) Middle rank in California?
Is Stauffer (Mary R.) Middle getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Stauffer (Mary R.) Middle?
How does Stauffer (Mary R.) Middle compare to other schools in Downey?
How does Stauffer (Mary R.) Middle serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Middle Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 50
Private alternatives nearby
Private schools within ~10 miles. These schools do not participate in state testing and cannot be scored or ranked.
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 | 394 | 19% | 35% | 24% | 22% | 54% | +7 |
| Grade 7 | 444 | 18% | 31% | 23% | 28% | 49% | +1 |
| Grade 8 | 430 | 19% | 31% | 24% | 26% | 49% | +3 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 399 | 20% | 22% | 30% | 29% | 42% | +7 |
| Grade 7 | 446 | 18% | 23% | 29% | 30% | 41% | +7 |
| Grade 8 | 433 | 19% | 13% | 26% | 42% | 32% | +0 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 432 | 9% | 26% | 56% | 8% |
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 | 1,045 | 47.0% | −5 | +9 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 1,169 | 50.1% | −5 | +11 |
| Students with Disabilities | 156 | 15.4% | −2 | −2 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stauffer (Mary R.) Middle ← | — | 43 | 18.8% | 44.5% | −6.9 | 6.9% |
| Whaley Middle | 3.2 mi | 56 | 20.1% | 46.9% | −4.9 | 0.5% |
| Griffiths (Gordon) Middle | 2.1 mi | 53 | 27.0% | 54.9% | −4.0 | 6.0% |
| Paramount Park Middle | 2.6 mi | 41 | 9.6% | 32.8% | +11.3 | 4.1% |
| California average | — | 43 | 16.8% | 39.3% | +1.5 | 3.7% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 35 | 38 | #1234 | 14.5% | 42.6% | 8.0% | 5.8% | -6.0pp |
| 2022 | 33 | 41 | #1274 | 13.0% | 38.8% | 32.3% | 5.0% | -9.0pp |
| 2023 | 41 | 52 | #1047 | 15.5% | 40.4% | 21.7% | 6.5% | -4.4pp |
| 2024 | 42 | 59 | #896 | 17.5% | 44.0% | 23.7% | 5.9% | +3.0pp |
| 2025 | 43 | 54 | #1025 | 18.8% | 44.5% | 21.6% | 6.9% | -6.9pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 7.0% | 20.8% | +13.8pp |
| Male | 8.9% | 22.4% | +13.5pp |
| Asian | 7.7% | 10.5% | +2.8pp |
| Black/African American | 10.0% | 34.5% | +24.5pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 8.1% | 21.4% | +13.3pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 14.4% | 31.4% | +17.0pp |
| English Learners | 11.2% | 25.3% | +14.1pp |
| Foster Youth | 33.3% | — | — |
| Homeless | 33.3% | 36.7% | +3.4pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 8.7% | 23.9% | +15.2pp |
| All Students | 8.0% | 21.6% | +13.6pp |
| Two or More Races | — | 25.0% | — |
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