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What's the best and worst thing about the food at Mesa Middle?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
474
Middle
DISTRICT 483 · STATE 659
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·LUCIA MAR UNIFIED·NCES 062308009910
Mesa Middle
2555 Halcyon Rd., Arroyo Grande, CA 93420 · (805) 474-3400 · San Luis Obispo County
GRADES 07–08MIDDLE23-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL474 STUDENTS
B
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 55% of California public middle schools
- B-Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- BBeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- A-Three-year trend Change in reading and math proficiency over the last three test years.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded California public middle schools
Student : Teacher
19.0:1
25 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 18.8:1 · STATE 20.7:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
74%
350 students
DISTRICT 61% · STATE 65%
Community
6
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other middle schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 1 | 0% |
| Grade 7 | 233 | 49% |
| Grade 8 | 240 | 51% |
Student demographics
49%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 58% · STATE 62% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
CAASPP 2024-25 . % met or exceeded standardEnglish Language Arts
46.7%
CA avg 49.1% . +6.7pp since 2014
Math
25.7%
CA avg 37.7% . -2.3pp since 2014
What this means: On the CAASPP, California's statewide test, about 47 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 26 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all California schools, those numbers are about 49 and 38. Reading and writing scores are up about 7 points since 2014, while math scores are down about 2 points.
Performance levels, 2024-25
| Subject | Standard Exceeded | Standard Met | Standard Nearly Met | Standard Not Met |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English Language Arts | 13.2% | 33.5% | 28.1% | 25.2% |
| Math | 11.5% | 14.3% | 28.7% | 45.5% |
Share of tested students at each CAASPP level. Each student counts in one level, so a row adds to about 100%.
CAASPP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 46.7% | 25.7% |
| 2023-24 | 43.3% | 22.8% |
| 2022-23 | 41.1% | 16.1% |
| 2021-22 | 41.4% | 19.8% |
| 2018-19 | 45.5% | 30.9% |
| 2017-18 | 47.2% | 31.1% |
| 2016-17 | 47.3% | 31.8% |
| 2015-16 | 47.0% | 29.0% |
| 2014-15 | 40.0% | 28.0% |
% met or exceeded standard, all students and all tested grades.
Source: CAASPP. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
34.6%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
36.3%
based on CA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-1.7pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 35% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 36% typical for California schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among California's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Mesa Middle
Mesa Middle's state test result (34.6% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mesa Middle this school | 474 | 73.8% | 34.6% |
| Lakeview Junior High Santa Maria | 463 | 72.4% | 38.2% |
| Sycamore Middle Gridley | 423 | 73.0% | 38.0% |
| Rafer Johnson Junior High Kingsburg | 447 | 69.1% | 44.3% |
| Santa Rosa Middle Santa Rosa | 452 | 76.1% | 20.4% |
| Ronald W. Reagan Elementary Kingsburg | 619 | 73.2% | 40.1% |
Matched among California middle schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Mesa Middle ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In California | In San Luis Obispo County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 34.6% | #643 of 1,224 | #11 of 12 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 25.7% | #702 of 1,227 ▲ 16 | #12 of 12 no change |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 46.7% | #560 of 1,227 ▲ 15 | #9 of 12 ▲ 2 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +5.6pp | #272 of 1,214 | #2 of 11 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 474 | #967 of 1,377 | #8 of 12 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 19.0:1 | #318 of 1,279 | #3 of 10 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 49.1% | #676 of 1,278 | #8 of 10 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 73.8% | #668 of 1,329 | #2 of 12 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -14.4% | #521 of 930 | #2 of 8 |
Ranked against other public middle schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
474
-23 (-5%) vs 2020
-19% since 1990-91, when it was 588
Student : Teacher
19.0:1
was 19.9:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 474 | 25 | 19.0:1 | 74% (350) |
| 2023-24 | 477 | 25.6 | 18.6:1 | 74% (354) |
| 2022-23 | 465 | 25.7 | 18.1:1 | 73% (338) |
| 2020-21 | 497 | 25 | 19.9:1 | 72% (359) |
| 2017-18 | 554 | 26.2 | 21.1:1 | 65% (358) |
| 2015-16 | 513 | 26 | 19.7:1 | 68% (348) |
| 2010-11 | 541 | N/A | N/A | 59% (321) |
| 2000-01 | 757 | 36 | 21.0:1 | 49% (368) |
| 1990-91 | 588 | 22 | 26.7:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Mesa Middle.
Since 2017-18: students down 14% (554 to 474); teachers down 5% (26.2 to 25).
About Mesa Middle
Mesa Middle serves students in Arroyo Grande, California, as a small middle-grades school. Its 474 students are spread across grades 7 through 8. The typical figure for middle schools in California is about 659 students.
The district, Lucia Mar Unified, has 9,590 students enrolled across 19 schools.
Hispanic students make up a majority at Mesa Middle, at 66%. Next come 28% White and 4% multiracial. That compares with about 25% Hispanic among all San Luis Obispo County residents. The school's diversity index is 49%, meaning two students picked at random have a 49% chance of belonging to different racial or ethnic groups.
Teachers at the school number 25 full-time equivalents, and the ratio is 19.0:1. On average, middle schools in California have 20.7:1, compared with 19.0:1 here. The school's lunch program data list 74% of students as eligible for free or reduced-price meals. For comparison, public schools in San Luis Obispo County average 54%.
allk12 grades Mesa Middle a B. The grade compares the school only with California public middle schools, because each state gives its own test.
On a poverty-adjusted basis, Mesa Middle falls in the middle 80% of California schools: 34.6% actual against 36.3% predicted.
San Luis Obispo County has about 281,555 residents, and the median household income is $97,446, about 40% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and the poverty rate is about 6%. In all, San Luis Obispo County has 83 public schools and roughly 33,339 students.
The nearest public school is Lopez Continuation High, at about 1.0 miles. Around the school, at least 8 other public schools are within five miles. On state test proficiency, Mesa Middle ranks 7th in a group of 7 nearby schools.
Locale data from NCES put Mesa Middle in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population under 100,000 (Suburb: Small).
Over 4 years, Mesa Middle's enrollment dropped 5%, to 474.
To ask about school events, clubs, and volunteer needs, start a discussion on this page. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.
San Luis Obispo County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
281,555
Census ACS
Median income
$97,446
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
40%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
6%
Below federal line
Schools in county
83
33,339 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Lucia Mar Unified
- Arroyo Grande HighHigh · 2,012 students
- Nipomo HighHigh · 819 students
- Harloe ElementaryElementary · 619 students
- Dana ElementaryElementary · 612 students
- Lange (Dorothea) ElementaryElementary · 577 students
- Ocean View ElementaryElementary · 547 students
Other schools in Arroyo Grande
- Arroyo Grande HighHigh · 2,012 students
- Harloe ElementaryElementary · 619 students
- Ocean View ElementaryElementary · 547 students
- Paulding MiddleMiddle · 544 students
- Branch ElementaryElementary · 261 students
- Pacific View AcademyCombined · 114 students
Other Mesa Middle schools
3 other US public schools in 3 states are named Mesa Middle. Mesa Middle is the 3rd largest of the 4.
- Mesa Middle SchoolCASTLE ROCK, CO · 852 students
- MESA MIDDLELAS CRUCES, NM · 728 students
- MESA MIDDLEROSWELL, NM · 350 students
Nearby schools
- Lopez Continuation High1.0 mi · 96
- Pacific View Academy1.0 mi · 114
- Fairgrove Elementary2.5 mi · 365
- Oceano Elementary2.5 mi · 377
- Harloe Elementary2.6 mi · 619
- Arroyo Grande High2.7 mi · 2,012
Frequently asked questions
About Mesa MiddleWhat is the total enrollment at Mesa Middle?
Mesa Middle enrolls approximately 474 students in grades 07-08.
What age range does Mesa Middle serve?
Mesa Middle serves students from grade 07 through grade 08.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Mesa Middle?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Mesa Middle is approximately 19.0:1 (25 FTE teachers).
How diverse is Mesa Middle?
Mesa Middle reports a student body of 28% White, 66% Hispanic, 1% Black, 2% Asian, 4% Two or more.
What district is Mesa Middle in?
Mesa Middle is part of Lucia Mar Unified.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.