Walter Stiern Middle

Walter Stiern Middle, a mid-tier intermediate school in Bakersfield, California, operated by Bakersfield City, enrolls 891 students, covering grades 6 through 8. By comparison, California's public schools average about 659 students each, so Walter Stiern Middle sits 35% larger than that benchmark.

Walter Stiern Middle is one of 44 schools operated by Bakersfield City, a district that serves 28,365 students overall.

In terms of who attends, Walter Stiern Middle lists that nearly all students (88%) are Hispanic. The remainder comes out to 7% White, 4% Black. The wider county runs roughly 57% Hispanic, putting the school's mix noticeably more Hispanic than the area baseline.

In terms of school funding signals, The school lists 41 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 21.5:1. That figure is higher than the state norm's 20.7:1 average. About 81% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Walter Stiern Middle is in the bottom 10% of California public schools. The BeatsExpectations model predicts schools with this FRL share to land around 30.9%; Walter Stiern Middle posts 16.3%, -14.6 points below that line.

Around the school, community-level numbers for Kern County indicate median household earnings sit near $70,210, 19% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 15%. Walter Stiern Middle is one of 279 public schools in Kern County (combined enrollment of about 197,431 students).

The closest other public school is Hort Elementary, roughly 0.3 miles away. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Walter Stiern Middle. On composite proficiency, Walter Stiern Middle comes 9th of 9 in the immediate cluster, below the nearby-schools average of 29.0%.

Walter Stiern Middle operates from an outlying location.

Over the past 7-year window. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Walter Stiern Middle has fell 18%, going from 1,084 students in 2018 to 891 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio pulled in from 25.9:1 in 2018 to 21.5:1 today.

On this page, the feed for Walter Stiern Middle typically covers science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.