Hillsdale Middle

Set in El Cajon, California, Hillsdale Middle is a well-populated intermediate school, part of Cajon Valley Union. It works with 1,481 students across grades 6 through 8. Enrollment runs roughly 125% above the state mean of about 659.

Cajon Valley Union runs 25 schools in total, collectively educating 15,974 students. Hillsdale Middle is one of those campuses.

On the student-mix side, Hillsdale Middle reports that the largest single group is White, at 55% of enrollment. The remainder consists of 27% Hispanic, 10% multiracial, 4% Asian, 3% Black.

In terms of school funding signals, Staff filings list 67 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 22.1:1 students per teacher. That figure is higher than the state norm's 20.7:1 average. An estimated 73% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. Set against San Diego County (around 54%), the school's rate is somewhat above typical.

With demographic context factored in, Hillsdale Middle performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 35.9%, the actual is 46.3%, a residual of +10.5 points.

In the broader community, ACS estimates for San Diego County put the typical household earns roughly $106,268 per year, about 43% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 7%. In all, San Diego County runs 766 public schools (combined enrollment of about 467,437 students), of which Hillsdale Middle is one.

The closest other public school is Rancho San Diego Elementary, roughly 0.4 miles away. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Hillsdale Middle. On composite proficiency, Hillsdale Middle comes 5th of 7 in the immediate cluster, below the nearby-schools average of 48.5%.

Geographically, the school is in an outer-ring area.

Trend over the last 7 years. Hillsdale Middle's enrollment has decreased 3% since 2018, when it stood at 1,532 (now 1,481). The student-to-teacher ratio tightened from 24.4:1 in 2018 to 22.1:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, posts here usually surface around science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.