William B. Bristow Middle: This school runs ahead of the state average. The bar itself is the harder conversation.
William B. Bristow posts 41% meeting the standard against 39% statewide — ahead of most, with real headroom above the bar.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 33 | 14% | 41% | -3.9 | 14.4% | 7.9% |
| CA average · Middle School | 43 | 17% | 39% | +1.5 | 18.5% | 3.7% |
William B. Bristow Middle scores 33 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 31st 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 “41% proficient” and call it done. William B. Bristow deserves a closer read. It sits at the 31st percentile of 2,238 California middle schools — but the ranking is the least interesting thing on this page.
The seven-year arc
Slipped from the 50th to the 31st percentile since 2019.
This school hasn't fully recovered from the pandemic: 41% meet the standard today, versus 52% in 2019 — a gap worth asking about on a visit.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 60% | 53% | 49% | 55% | 50% |
| Grade 7 | 68% | 54% | 50% | 44% | 50% |
| Grade 8 | 55% | 49% | 43% | 51% | 47% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 48% | 32% | 38% | 37% | 34% |
| Grade 7 | 48% | 35% | 42% | 35% | 35% |
| Grade 8 | 34% | 29% | 26% | 33% | 29% |
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 1.8pp across grades; the floor slips 3.1pp. 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 typically leads to a suspension, and what happens before it gets there.
- 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 William B. Bristow Middle in Brentwood, 37.0% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 43.8% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. William B. Bristow Middle trails its district average for low-income students by 6.8 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (26.7% Math proficient); Hispanic students (41.8% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 44.6 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 476 students tested.
5 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 8.4pp from grade 6 to grade 8 at this school. District average: -2.8pp.
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 (16.3% vs 10.1%). Chronic absence here concentrates in the upper grades.
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.
$210 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), 30% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is William B. Bristow Middle a good middle school?
What are William B. Bristow Middle's CAASPP test scores?
How does William B. Bristow Middle rank in California?
Is William B. Bristow Middle getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at William B. Bristow Middle?
How does William B. Bristow Middle compare to other schools in Brentwood?
How does William B. Bristow Middle serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 56
Nearby High Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 54
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 | 374 | 15% | 35% | 24% | 26% | 50% | +4 |
| Grade 7 | 388 | 13% | 37% | 26% | 24% | 50% | +3 |
| Grade 8 | 396 | 13% | 34% | 31% | 22% | 47% | +1 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 374 | 15% | 19% | 35% | 31% | 34% | −1 |
| Grade 7 | 388 | 13% | 22% | 28% | 36% | 35% | +1 |
| Grade 8 | 397 | 13% | 16% | 21% | 49% | 29% | −3 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 396 | 9% | 21% | 54% | 17% |
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 | 476 | 37.0% | −7 | −1 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 404 | 41.8% | −5 | +3 |
| White | 379 | 53.6% | −6 | −8 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| William B. Bristow Middle ← | — | 33 | 13.8% | 41.1% | −3.9 | 7.9% |
| Edna Hill Middle | 1.3 mi | 46 | 21.3% | 50.0% | +1.8 | 6.7% |
| California average | — | 43 | 16.8% | 39.3% | +1.5 | 3.7% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 39 | 50 | #995 | 19.3% | 52.3% | — | — | -10.0pp |
| 2022 | 36 | 49 | #1103 | 13.0% | 41.9% | 22.6% | 6.1% | -3.4pp |
| 2023 | 38 | 46 | #1187 | 13.5% | 41.5% | 14.4% | 5.9% | -8.8pp |
| 2024 | 38 | 50 | #1100 | 15.6% | 42.4% | 16.7% | 6.8% | -4.8pp |
| 2025 | 33 | 31 | #1544 | 13.8% | 41.1% | 14.4% | 7.9% | -3.9pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | — | 14.6% | — |
| Male | — | 14.1% | — |
| Asian | — | 6.7% | — |
| Black/African American | — | 15.9% | — |
| Filipino | — | 17.5% | — |
| White | — | 11.1% | — |
| Hispanic/Latino | — | 15.3% | — |
| Two or More Races | — | 13.9% | — |
| Students with Disabilities | — | 22.3% | — |
| English Learners | — | 25.6% | — |
| Homeless | — | 46.7% | — |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | — | 19.6% | — |
| All Students | — | 14.3% | — |
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