Stauffer (Mary R.) Middle

Located at 11985 Old River School Rd., in Downey, California, Stauffer (Mary R.) Middle is a roomy intermediate school that instructs 1,329 students (grades 6 through 8), one of the schools within Downey Unified. Compared to the state average of about 659 students per school, that is 102% above typical.

Downey Unified runs 21 schools in total, collectively educating 22,405 students. Stauffer (Mary R.) Middle is one of those campuses.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Stauffer (Mary R.) Middle reports that 92% of students identify as Hispanic, making the school strongly Hispanic-majority. Beyond that, the school records 3% White, 2% Black. That is considerably more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 48%.

In terms of school funding signals, The school lists 56 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 23.7:1. The state averages around 20.7:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. About 83% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. That share is higher than Los Angeles County's rate of about 70%.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Stauffer (Mary R.) Middle performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 30.1%, the actual is 44.0%, a residual of +14.0 points.

In the area at large, the surrounding county (Los Angeles County) records that the typical household earns roughly $90,112 per year, about 36% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, 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 Stauffer (Mary R.) Middle is one.

Nearest neighbor: Old River Elementary, around 0.1 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Stauffer (Mary R.) Middle. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Stauffer (Mary R.) Middle ranks 6th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 45.7%.

The school occupies an outer-ring site.

Looking at the recent track record. Over the past 7-year window, the student count held roughly steady: 1,311 students in 2018 compared to 1,329 in 2025.

In the discussion threads here, posts here usually surface around classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. Members of the school community can share what they know.