Summary:
San Juan Unified has nine middle schools, all serving grades 6–8, with 2025–2026 results that vary sharply from school to school. Across the schools, average proficiency was 39% in English language arts (ELA), 26% in math and 27% in science—below state rates in all three subjects, with math furthest behind by 12 percentage points. The biggest takeaway is that these averages conceal a very wide divide between schools.
Winston Churchill Middle leads in every subject, with 65% proficiency in ELA, 57% in math and 59% in science; it is 16, 18 and 23 points above state rates, respectively. At the other end, Katherine Johnson Middle is lowest in all three subjects, at 10% in ELA, 6% in math and 7% in science—39, 32 and 29 points below state rates. The Churchill-to-Johnson gaps are 55 points in ELA, 50 in math and 52 in science. Andrew Carnegie Middle also stands out in ELA: its 51% rate is 2 points above the state, while Arden Middle is at 44%.
Over the past year, average science proficiency rose 3 points, while ELA and math averages were essentially flat; nonetheless, the schools’ average results fell farther behind state rates in every subject. School-level trends differ: science rose 11 points at Churchill and 11 at Carnegie, but fell 9 points at Will Rogers Middle and 9 at Arden. SchoolDigger’s statewide percentile ranking was 86 for Churchill and 2 for Johnson in 2025–2026; Arden’s ranking fell from 66 to 44 over three years. As context, 2024–2025 free/reduced lunch eligibility was 43% at Churchill and 90% at Johnson, while student-teacher ratios were 21.6:1 and 18.5:1, respectively. These measures show differences among schools but do not explain their results.
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