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How has Palm Desert Charter Middle changed in the last five years, for better or worse?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
1,298
Middle
DISTRICT 838 · STATE 659
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·DESERT SANDS UNIFIED·NCES 061111001231
Palm Desert Charter Middle
74-200 Rutledge Way, Palm Desert, CA 92260 · (760) 862-4320 · Riverside County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE13-CITYCHARTERTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL1,298 STUDENTS
B+
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 69% 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.
- B+Beats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- CThree-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
27.6:1
47 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 24.2:1 · STATE 20.7:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
61%
797 students
DISTRICT 79% · 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 | 373 | 29% |
| Grade 7 | 462 | 36% |
| Grade 8 | 463 | 36% |
Student demographics
61%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 39% · 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
57.9%
CA avg 49.1% . +1.9pp since 2014
Math
38.8%
CA avg 37.7% . -1.2pp since 2014
What this means: On the CAASPP, California's statewide test, about 58 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 39 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 2 points since 2014, while math scores are down about 1 points.
Performance levels, 2024-25
| Subject | Standard Exceeded | Standard Met | Standard Nearly Met | Standard Not Met |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English Language Arts | 22.1% | 35.8% | 22.3% | 19.8% |
| Math | 22.3% | 16.5% | 26.7% | 34.5% |
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 | 57.9% | 38.8% |
| 2023-24 | 54.4% | 40.3% |
| 2022-23 | 55.5% | 38.4% |
| 2021-22 | 60.2% | 36.8% |
| 2018-19 | 64.6% | 45.7% |
| 2017-18 | 58.5% | 45.6% |
| 2016-17 | 60.5% | 46.1% |
| 2015-16 | 61.0% | 42.0% |
| 2014-15 | 56.0% | 40.0% |
% 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
47.9%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
43.6%
based on CA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+4.4pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 48% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 44% 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 Palm Desert Charter Middle
Palm Desert Charter Middle's state test result (47.9% proficient) is higher than 2 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Palm Desert Charter Middle this school | 1,298 | 61.4% | 47.9% |
| Clark Intermediate Clovis | 1,437 | 55.3% | 52.8% |
| Robert Frost Middle Granada Hills | 1,505 | 54.1% | 66.5% |
| Moore Middle Redlands | 988 | 57.3% | 43.4% |
| Sinaloa Middle Simi Valley | 843 | 60.5% | 32.9% |
| Walter Reed Middle North Hollywood | 1,580 | 57.5% | 58.5% |
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 Palm Desert Charter Middle ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In California | In Riverside County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 47.9% | #377 of 1,224 | #16 of 78 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 38.8% | #423 of 1,227 ▼ 40 | #17 of 78 ▼ 2 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 57.9% | #358 of 1,227 ▲ 17 | #14 of 78 ▲ 2 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest drop first | -0.2pp | #353 of 1,214 | #20 of 77 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 1,298 | #49 of 1,377 | #5 of 79 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 27.6:1 | #1,253 of 1,279 | #77 of 78 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 60.9% | #410 of 1,278 | #22 of 77 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 61.4% | #821 of 1,329 | #66 of 78 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -7.8% | #729 of 930 | #49 of 61 |
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
1,298
-74 (-5%) vs 2020
+36% since 1990-91, when it was 954
Student : Teacher
27.6:1
was 26.9:1
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 | 1,298 | 47 | 27.6:1 | 61% (797) |
| 2023-24 | 1,389 | 49.7 | 28.0:1 | 63% (872) |
| 2022-23 | 1,347 | 49.9 | 27.0:1 | 60% (812) |
| 2020-21 | 1,372 | 51 | 26.9:1 | 46% (633) |
| 2017-18 | 1,408 | 53.7 | 26.2:1 | 50% (705) |
| 2015-16 | 1,411 | 52 | 27.1:1 | 45% (635) |
| 2010-11 | 1,262 | N/A | N/A | 42% (525) |
| 2000-01 | 1,205 | 50 | 24.1:1 | 29% (344) |
| 1990-91 | 954 | 41 | 23.3:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Palm Desert Charter Middle.
Since 2017-18: students down 8% (1,408 to 1,298); teachers down 12% (53.7 to 47).
About Palm Desert Charter Middle
Palm Desert Charter Middle is a large middle school in California, with an address in Palm Desert. It educates 1,298 students in grades 6 through 8. The school's enrollment is 97% larger than the 659 average for middle schools in California.
Palm Desert Charter Middle is part of Desert Sands Unified, where 34 schools serve 25,613 students.
Hispanic students account for 52% of enrollment at Palm Desert Charter Middle. Enrollment also includes 34% White, 6% multiracial, and 6% Asian. County-wide, about 51% of residents are Hispanic. The chance that two students picked at random at Palm Desert Charter Middle belong to different racial or ethnic groups, known as the diversity index, is 61%.
The school has about 27.6 students per teacher and 47 full-time-equivalent teachers. That ratio is over the 20.7:1 average for middle schools in California. Federal records put free or reduced-price lunch eligibility at 61%. For comparison, public schools in Riverside County average 74%.
Palm Desert Charter Middle is graded B+ by allk12, scoring above 69% of California public middle schools once test results, poverty-adjusted performance, and the recent trend are combined.
In California, Palm Desert Charter Middle is in the middle band of BeatsExpectations: 47.9% actual against a predicted 43.6%.
Census estimates describe Riverside County this way: median household income is about $93,074, 26% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 8% of people live in poverty. The public schools of Riverside County number 543 and enroll about 424,872.
Abraham Lincoln Elementary is located about 0.1 miles from Palm Desert Charter Middle. Other public schools within five miles: at least 8. The school's 47.9% average proficiency ranks 5th among 9 nearby schools.
NCES lists the school's locale as City: Small. That means it sits inside a principal city with a population under 100,000. This is a charter school, which is a tuition-free public school operating under a charter.
Palm Desert Charter Middle had 1,372 students in 2020-21 and 1,298 in 2024-25, a 5% decrease.
To ask about school safety, transportation, and start times, start a discussion on this page. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.
Riverside County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
2,478,600
Census ACS
Median income
$93,074
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
26%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
8%
Below federal line
Schools in county
543
424,872 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Desert Sands Unified
- La Quinta HighHigh · 2,425 students
- Palm Desert HighHigh · 2,079 students
- Indio HighHigh · 1,962 students
- Shadow Hills HighHigh · 1,650 students
- John Glenn Middle School of International StudiesMiddle · 1,099 students
- Desert Ridge AcademyMiddle · 962 students
Other schools in Palm Desert
- Palm Desert HighHigh · 2,079 students
- Ronald Reagan ElementaryElementary · 808 students
- George Washington CharterElementary · 746 students
- Abraham Lincoln ElementaryElementary · 607 students
- James Earl Carter ElementaryElementary · 487 students
Nearby schools
- Abraham Lincoln Elementary0.1 mi · 607
- Palm Desert High0.7 mi · 2,079
- James Earl Carter Elementary0.8 mi · 487
- George Washington Charter1.2 mi · 746
- Rancho Mirage Elementary3.0 mi · 349
- Gerald R. Ford Elementary3.4 mi · 598
Frequently asked questions
About Palm Desert Charter MiddleWhat is the total enrollment at Palm Desert Charter Middle?
Palm Desert Charter Middle enrolls approximately 1,298 students in grades 06-08.
What age range does Palm Desert Charter Middle serve?
Palm Desert Charter Middle serves students from grade 06 through grade 08.
How many students per teacher at Palm Desert Charter Middle?
Approximately 27.6:1 students per teacher at Palm Desert Charter Middle.
How diverse is Palm Desert Charter Middle?
Palm Desert Charter Middle reports a student body of 34% White, 52% Hispanic, 2% Black, 6% Asian, 6% Two or more.
Is Palm Desert Charter Middle public or private?
Palm Desert Charter Middle is a public K-12 school operated as a charter, overseen by Desert Sands Unified.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.