Summary:
Santa Maria-Bonita has four middle schools serving grades 7–8. In 2025–2026, their average proficiency was 27% in English language arts (ELA), 13% in math and 15% in science, compared with state averages of 49%, 38% and 36%, respectively. The group’s largest average gap was in math, at 25 percentage points below the state. The most important finding is that every school scored below the state average in all three subjects.
Kunst (Tommie) Junior High led the group in every subject, with 35% proficient in ELA, 16% in math and 19% in science. Its ELA result was 9 points above the next-highest school, Arellanes Junior High; its math and science leads were about 2 points each. El Camino Junior High was lowest in all three subjects, at 22% in ELA, 11% in math and 12% in science. Compared with Kunst, El Camino was 13 points lower in ELA, 5 points lower in math and 7 points lower in science.
Score trends offer a different way to compare schools: Fesler (Isaac) Junior High improved in all three subjects from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, gaining 5 points in ELA, 1 in math and 3 in science, while Arellanes declined in each, including by less than a point in math and science. Kunst gained in ELA and science but fell 3 points in math; El Camino’s ELA and math scores each fell about 1 point while science rose 3. SchoolDigger ranks Kunst highest among the four, though its percentile declined from 31 to 23; Fesler rose from 9 to 10. For context, all four reported free/reduced lunch eligible figures for 2024–2025, ranging from 88% at Kunst to 97% at El Camino; student-teacher ratios ranged from 18 at Kunst to 20 at Fesler. These figures describe school differences but do not explain score results.
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