Thomas Starr King Middle School Film and Media Mag: This school runs ahead of the state average. The bar itself is the harder conversation.
Thomas Starr King Middle School Film and Media Mag posts 50% meeting the standard against 39% statewide — ahead of most, with real headroom above the bar.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 51 | 27% | 50% | +2.3 | 19.6% | 0.6% |
| CA average · Middle School | 43 | 17% | 39% | +1.5 | 18.5% | 3.7% |
Thomas Starr King Middle School Film and Media Mag scores 51 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 74th 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 “50% proficient” and call it done. Thomas Starr King Middle School Film and Media Mag deserves a closer read. It sits at the 74th percentile of 2,238 California middle schools — but the ranking is the least interesting thing on this page.
The seven-year arc
Climbed from the 63rd to the 74th percentile since 2019 — past roughly 100 middle schools.
This school hasn't fully recovered from the pandemic: 50% meet the standard today, versus 55% in 2019 — a gap worth asking about on a visit.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 66% | 53% | 58% | 58% | 55% |
| Grade 7 | 64% | 63% | 62% | 63% | 51% |
| Grade 8 | 56% | 57% | 56% | 57% | 57% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 55% | 39% | 41% | 37% | 43% |
| Grade 7 | 49% | 40% | 47% | 49% | 48% |
| Grade 8 | 41% | 35% | 33% | 42% | 46% |
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 falls 1.7pp across grades; the floor rises 2.0pp. 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 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 Thomas Starr King Middle School Film and Media Mag in Los Angeles, 45.8% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 40.9% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Thomas Starr King Middle School Film and Media Mag outperforms its district average for low-income students by 4.9 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (37.7% Math proficient); Hispanic students (42.9% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 49.7 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 1,070 students tested.
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 0.3pp from grade 6 to grade 8 at this school. District average: -0.3pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
Grades 7–8 students miss school at roughly one and a half times the rate of Grades 4–6 students (22.0% vs 14.0%). Chronic absence here concentrates in the upper grades.
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
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.
$1,442 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), 42% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Thomas Starr King Middle School Film and Media Mag a good middle school?
What are Thomas Starr King Middle School Film and Media Mag's CAASPP test scores?
How does Thomas Starr King Middle School Film and Media Mag rank in California?
Is Thomas Starr King Middle School Film and Media Mag getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Thomas Starr King Middle School Film and Media Mag?
How does Thomas Starr King Middle School Film and Media Mag compare to other schools in Los Angeles?
How does Thomas Starr King Middle School Film and Media Mag serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Middle Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 55
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 | 444 | 29% | 26% | 20% | 26% | 55% | +8 |
| Grade 7 | 492 | 25% | 26% | 23% | 26% | 51% | +3 |
| Grade 8 | 506 | 27% | 30% | 20% | 23% | 57% | +11 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 449 | 26% | 18% | 28% | 29% | 43% | +8 |
| Grade 7 | 500 | 28% | 20% | 22% | 30% | 48% | +14 |
| Grade 8 | 501 | 28% | 18% | 19% | 35% | 46% | +13 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 509 | 18% | 24% | 46% | 13% |
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 | 1,070 | 45.8% | +5 | +8 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 873 | 42.9% | +2 | +4 |
| White | 251 | 71.9% | +3 | +10 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thomas Starr King Middle School Film and Media Mag ← | — | 51 | 27.1% | 50.0% | +2.3 | 0.6% |
| Magnolia Science Academy 6 | 3.3 mi | 58 | 22.9% | 48.2% | +13.4 | 3.7% |
| Washington Irving Middle School Math, Music and En | 2.7 mi | 58 | 33.6% | 59.2% | −17.6 | 1.7% |
| Rise Kohyang Middle | 2.3 mi | 49 | 18.5% | 40.9% | +3.2 | 0.5% |
| California average | — | 43 | 16.8% | 39.3% | +1.5 | 3.7% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 45 | 63 | #740 | 28.5% | 55.1% | 14.2% | 0.0% | -12.5pp |
| 2022 | 47 | 73 | #574 | 21.6% | 47.8% | 26.0% | 0.0% | +0.2pp |
| 2023 | 49 | 69 | #669 | 22.7% | 49.5% | 26.9% | 0.0% | -4.5pp |
| 2024 | 51 | 76 | #521 | 25.1% | 51.0% | 25.5% | 0.0% | +1.4pp |
| 2025 | 51 | 74 | #593 | 27.1% | 50.0% | 19.6% | 0.6% | +2.3pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 15.3% | 20.7% | +5.4pp |
| Male | 13.2% | 18.5% | +5.3pp |
| Asian | 4.9% | 6.2% | +1.3pp |
| Black/African American | 30.8% | 31.8% | +1.0pp |
| White | 6.7% | 3.8% | -2.9pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 15.5% | 23.7% | +8.2pp |
| Two or More Races | 13.7% | 10.7% | -3.0pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 23.4% | 25.9% | +2.5pp |
| English Learners | 21.9% | 30.9% | +9.0pp |
| Foster Youth | 50.0% | — | — |
| Homeless | 30.8% | 35.9% | +5.1pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 15.1% | 22.9% | +7.8pp |
| All Students | 14.2% | 19.6% | +5.4pp |
| Filipino | — | 16.7% | — |
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