Summary:
Three middle schools in Alum Rock Union Elementary serve grades 6–8: William Sheppard Middle, Ocala Middle and Renaissance at Mathson. In 2025–26, each school’s proficiency rate was below the state rate in ELA, mathematics and science. Averaged equally across the schools, proficiency was 30% in ELA, 18% in mathematics and 19% in science, compared with 49%, 38% and 36% statewide. The largest average shortfall was in mathematics, at 21 percentage points below the state.
Ocala stands out in all-grades ELA and science, with 33% proficient in ELA and 26% in science; those rates are 4 and 9 points above the other schools’ averages in those subjects. Sheppard leads mathematics at 18%, about 1 point above the other two schools’ average, though the schools’ math results are tightly grouped. At the bottom, Renaissance has the lowest ELA rate, 27%, while Sheppard has the lowest science rate, 15%. Ocala’s overall strength does not carry evenly across grades: its sixth-grade math proficiency is 6%, compared with 16% districtwide and 37% statewide.
Results did not improve consistently from 2024–25 to 2025–26: ELA fell at all three schools, while science rose by 12 points at Ocala but fell by 4 points at each of the others. The average gap from the state widened in all three subjects. SchoolDigger gives all three schools one star; its 2025–26 rankings place Ocala highest (1,957th of 2,703; 28th percentile), followed by Sheppard (2,185th; 19th percentile) and Renaissance (2,263rd; 16th percentile). As context, free/reduced lunch eligible rates in 2024–25 were 71% at Sheppard, 79% at Ocala and 84% at Renaissance; student–teacher ratios were 17.3 at Sheppard and 15.7 at the other two schools. These context measures do not, on their own, explain differences in results.
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