Summary:
Monterey Peninsula Unified includes 16 schools: 10 elementary, two middle and four high schools, serving students from kindergarten through high school. Across the schools, average proficiency is 40% in ELA, 26% in math and 26% in science, compared with state figures of 49%, 38% and 36%. The most important takeaway is that these averages hide very wide differences: the highest and lowest reported school results are 57 percentage points apart in ELA, 48 in math and 42 in science.
Monterey High leads in ELA at 63%, while La Mesa leads in math at 50% and science at 49%; La Mesa is above the state in all three subjects. By contrast, Central Coast High is lowest in ELA and math, at 6% and 3%, and Martin Luther King has the lowest reported science result, 6%. George C. Marshall Elementary is another strong option to compare: it scores 49% in ELA, 41% in math and 40% in science, close to or above state results. Science results are reported for 15 schools; Central Coast High’s science score is suppressed.
Recent area averages were essentially flat in ELA and math from 2024–25 to 2025–26, while science rose 2 points; statewide results were roughly flat in ELA and rose 1 point in math and 3 in science. The income figures are free/reduced lunch eligible for school year 2024–25: La Mesa reports 45%, George C. Marshall 55%, Marina Vista Elementary 84% and Martin Luther King 89%, showing that reported shares alone do not sort schools by results. Enrollment and ratios are not a simple guide either: La Mesa and Monte Vista have similar enrollment and ratios (23.4 and 23.6 students per teacher), yet La Mesa scores higher in each subject; Central Coast has the lowest ratio, 8.7, but the lowest ELA and math results. SchoolDigger ranks the district 625th out of 968, at the 35th percentile.
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