McFarland Junior High

McFarland Junior High, a modestly sized 6-8 campus in McFarland, California, one of the schools within McFarland Unified, caters to 494 students, covering grades 7 through 8. That puts it 25% smaller than the typical public school in California, which averages around 659 students.

McFarland Junior High is one of 7 schools operated by McFarland Unified, a district that instructs 3,282 students overall.

Demographically, McFarland Junior High shows that 99% of students identify as Hispanic, making the school strongly Hispanic-majority. By comparison, Kern County as a whole is about 57% Hispanic, so the school skews meaningfully more Hispanic than its surroundings.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Staff filings list 22 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. About 88% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. That share is above Kern County's rate of about 76%.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, McFarland Junior High performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 27.0%, the actual is 21.7%, a residual of -5.3 points.

Zooming out to the county, ACS estimates for Kern County put the typical household earns roughly $70,210 per year, about 19% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 15%. Across Kern County's 279 public schools (combined enrollment of about 197,431 students), McFarland Junior High is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is McFarland High School Early College, roughly 0.3 miles away. 6 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 7 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), McFarland Junior High ranks 6th on composite proficiency, behind the local average of 30.8%.

Geographically, the school is in a town-based area.

Five-year trend. McFarland Junior High's enrollment has ticked down 40% since 2018, when it stood at 822 (now 494). The student-to-teacher ratio tightened from 24.3:1 in 2018 to 22.1:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. The community welcomes input from current and former families.