Summary:
Santa Paula Unified has one middle school in this list, Isbell Middle, serving grades 7–8 with 634 students. In 2025–26, Isbell’s all-grades proficiency was below the state in ELA, math, and science: 34%, 22%, and 11%, compared with 49%, 38%, and 36% statewide. Science is the clearest concern: Isbell was 25 percentage points below the state, its largest gap, and the gap widened over the latest year.
There is no second school to identify as a local leader or a school trailing Isbell. Within Isbell, ELA was its strongest result relative to the state, while science was its weakest. In the grade-matched comparisons for grades 7–8, Isbell was slightly above district results in all five subject-and-grade comparisons, by less than 1 percentage point each, but remained below the state. The 2025–26 all-grades results show a different comparison with the district: Isbell trailed by 1 point in ELA, 3 in math, and 10 in science. SchoolDigger ranked Isbell at the 24th percentile, 2,044 of 2,703 schools, with 1 star.
ELA and math improved, while science declined: from 2024–25 to 2025–26, ELA rose 5 percentage points and math rose 5, but science fell 5. As state results also rose, Isbell’s ELA and math gaps narrowed by about 4 points each; its science gap widened by 9 points. SchoolDigger’s reported percentile rose from 21 in 2024–25 to 24 in 2025–26, after 29 in 2023–24. As context, Isbell’s student–teacher ratio was 20.8:1 and 84% of students were free/reduced lunch eligible in 2024–25. Because only one school is listed, these figures cannot show how Isbell compares with other local middle schools.
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