Summary:
Trona has two public schools serving 258 students: Trona Elementary serves kindergarten through grade 6, and Trona High serves grades 7–12; both are in Trona Joint Unified. In 2025–26, the schools’ unweighted average proficiency was 11% in English language arts, 16% in math, and 3% in science, compared with California rates of 49%, 38%, and 36%. The most important concern is that proficiency was well below state levels in all three subjects at both schools.
Trona Elementary had higher reported All Grades scores than Trona High in every subject: 17% versus 5% in ELA, 21% versus 12% in math, and 7% versus 0% in science—a difference of 12, 9, and 7 percentage points. These results describe schools with different grade spans, rather than a like-for-like comparison. SchoolDigger ranks Trona Elementary at the 8th percentile statewide and Trona High at the 15th percentile. Trona High is a positive exception for completion: its graduation rate was 93%, above California’s 88%, and its dropout rate was 7%, below the state’s 8%.
Proficiency weakened from 2024–25 to 2025–26: the two-school average fell by 7 points in ELA, 1 point in math, and 8 points in science. Both schools declined in all three subjects, with the largest drop at Trona High in science, down 12 points. Attendance is another concern: chronic absenteeism was 36% at Trona Elementary and 39% at Trona High, versus 18% statewide. For context, in 2024–25, free/reduced lunch eligible shares were 80% and 74%, respectively; student–teacher ratios were 21 and 11.6, and per-student spending was $24,164 and $30,329. These contextual differences do not establish what caused the score patterns.
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