Valley Center-Pauma Unified

Valley Center-Pauma Unified has eight schools serving students from elementary through high school, including an alternative school; test results are listed for seven. In 2025–2026, the seven-school averages were 33% proficient in English, 16% in math and 17% in science, compared with state rates of 49%, 38% and 36%. That puts the local averages about 16, 22 and 19 percentage points below the state, respectively. The most important finding is that results vary substantially by school, and the group average trails the state in all three subjects.

Valley Center High led English at 48%, close to the state’s 49%; Valley Center Elementary led math at 29% and science at 26%, though those results were still about 9 and 10 points below state rates. At the other end, Pauma Elementary had the lowest English (23%) and science (7%), while Oak Glen High had the lowest math (5%). The gap between the leading and lowest school was about 25 points in English, 24 in math and 19 in science. Among the two conventional high schools, Valley Center High also had higher 11th-grade results than Oak Glen in English (48% versus 24%), math (21% versus 5%) and science (24% versus 11%).

English results improved across most schools, while math was roughly flat and science declined overall: the seven-school averages changed by about +5, 0 and −3 percentage points, respectively, from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026. Oak Glen High had the biggest English increase, rising 21 points to 24%, while Lilac fell 9 points in English, 8 in math and 16 in science. SchoolDigger’s statewide percentile ranking improved for Pauma Elementary (2nd to 9th) and Oak Glen High (4th to 18th), but slipped for Valley Center Middle (14th to 9th). As context, free/reduced lunch eligible figures for 2024–2025 ranged from 56% at Lilac to 77% at Oak Glen High; these figures describe school context, not a cause of results. Schools serve different grade spans, so all-grades comparisons are not fully like-for-like.