J O Combs Unified School District

J O Combs Unified School District includes nine schools, from elementary grades through high school, including a K–8 middle school and alternative schools. Across the seven schools with numeric all-grades results, average proficiency is 35% in ELA and 25% in math, compared with state rates of 41% and 33%. Results vary widely: ELA ranges from 22% to 54%, and math from 8% to 34%. The clearest area-wide takeaway is that results differ substantially by school, while the reported averages fall below the state in both subjects.

Combs Traditional Academy leads the all-grades results, with 54% proficient in ELA—13 points above the state—and 34% in math, 1 point above. Kathryn Sue Simonton Elementary is second in ELA at 46%, 5 points above the state. At the other end, Ellsworth Elementary School records 22% in ELA and 8% in math, respectively 19 and 25 points below state rates. Grade-level results add important differences: Combs Traditional is especially strong in grade 3, at 66% in ELA and 62% in math, while grade 5 ELA averages 26% across reported schools versus 38% statewide. In science, Ranch Elementary School leads grade 5 at 42%, 8 points above state. Combs High School pairs a 93% graduation rate with grade 11 ELA proficiency of 31%, below the state’s 38%; its 31% math result matches the state.

SchoolDigger’s recent percentile histories point in different directions: Jack Harmon Elementary School rose from the 12th to the 58th percentile between 2023–24 and 2025–26, and Simonton from the 34th to the 52nd; Ranch fell from the 38th to the 17th, while Ellsworth slipped from the 9th to the 5th. Combs Traditional was nearly steady, moving from the 65th to the 66th percentile. These rankings are not a multiyear test-score trend; SchoolDigger ranks the district 195th of 267, in the 27th percentile, with one star. Combs Traditional also has the lowest enrollment among the five elementary schools (211) and a 12.7 student-teacher ratio, while Ellsworth has 516 students and a 17.2 ratio; the supplied data leaves free/reduced-lunch rates blank, and suppressed test results should not be read as zero.