Doty (Wendy Lopour) Middle

Doty (Wendy Lopour) Middle is a well-populated middle-grades school in Downey, California, one of the schools within Downey Unified. The school enrolls 1,304 students in grades 6 through 8. That puts it 98% above the typical public school in California, which averages around 659 students.

Across the 21 schools in Downey Unified (22,405 students total), Doty (Wendy Lopour) Middle accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Doty (Wendy Lopour) Middle shows that 88% of students identify as Hispanic, making the school strongly Hispanic-majority; the rest breaks down as 7% White, 2% Asian. By comparison, Los Angeles County as a whole is about 48% Hispanic, so the school skews considerably more Hispanic than its surroundings.

On the resource side, Doty (Wendy Lopour) Middle lists 53 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 24.7:1. That figure is higher than the state norm's 20.7:1 average. An estimated 78% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. Set against Los Angeles County (around 70%), the school's rate is somewhat above typical.

With demographic context factored in, Doty (Wendy Lopour) Middle tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 32.9% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 40.7%.

Around the school, ACS estimates for Los Angeles County put median household income runs about $90,112, roughly 36% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 10%. In all, Los Angeles County runs 2244 public schools (combined enrollment of about 1,265,907 students), of which Doty (Wendy Lopour) Middle is one.

Rio San Gabriel Elementary is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.3 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Doty (Wendy Lopour) Middle. Among the 9 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Doty (Wendy Lopour) Middle ranks 8th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 49.0%.

The school occupies a bedroom-community site.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count declined 5%: 1,376 students in 2018 compared to 1,304 in 2025.

Inside the community feed, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.