Summary:
The 21 schools in Coachella Valley Unified include 14 elementary schools, three middle schools and four high schools, serving students across elementary, middle and high school grades. Across the schools, average proficiency is 31% in English language arts (ELA), 20% in mathematics and 15% in science, compared with California rates of 49%, 38% and 36%. The biggest overall concern is that school averages trail the state in every subject, with the widest gap in science at 21 percentage points.
Some schools stand out from that overall picture. Desert Mirage High leads in all-grades ELA at 54%, the only school above the state rate, and in science at 24%, though that is still 12 points below the state. Peter Pendleton Elementary leads mathematics at 40%, just above the state’s 38%; it also exceeds state results in grade 3 and grade 6 math. Among middle schools, Cahuilla Desert Academy Junior High leads all-grades ELA at 42% and leads the listed middle schools in grade 8 ELA and math. At the other end, La Familia Continuation High has the lowest all-grades results—7% in ELA, 2% in math and 4% in science—and a 69% graduation rate, below the district’s 93%.
Recent changes vary by subject: the average school result rose about 2 points in ELA and 3 in science from the prior year, but fell about 1 point in math. Peter Pendleton remained the math leader despite a 14-point drop, while Desert Mirage gained 13 points in SchoolDigger’s percentile ranking from 2023–24 to 2025–26; those rankings are not test-score changes. Context measures do not neatly sort schools by results: elementary free/reduced lunch eligible shares in 2024–25 ranged from 77% at Mountain Vista Elementary to 96% at Peter Pendleton. Attendance also merits attention: all 21 schools exceeded the state’s 18% chronic absenteeism rate, from 25% at Mountain Vista to 76% at La Familia.
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