Merced County Office of Education

Merced County Office of Education includes 7 schools—4 high schools and 3 alternative schools—with 1,560 students, from 20 at Merced County Juvenile Court to 942 at Merced County Special Education. SchoolDigger ranks the district 949th of 968 (2nd percentile, 0 stars). Across schools with reported results, average proficiency was 7% in ELA, 2% in math, and 7% in science, compared with state rates of 49%, 38%, and 36%. The most important finding is that even the highest reported school result in each subject remains well below the state: the leaders trail by 37 points in ELA, 33 in math, and 22 in science.

There is no single academic leader: Valley Los Banos Community leads ELA at 12%, while Valley Merced Community leads math at 6%, and Come Back Charter leads science at 14%. At the lower end, Special Education reported 4% in ELA, Los Banos and Valley Atwater Community each reported 0% in math, and Valley Merced reported 4% in science. Atwater stands out for graduation: its 86% rate was 2 points below the state’s 88%. By contrast, Juvenile Court had 3% chronic absenteeism, 15 points below the state, but its graduation rate was 50%. Some scores, including Juvenile Court’s, are suppressed, and the schools’ different grade spans make all-grades comparisons imperfect.

Recent results improved overall, but the changes were modest relative to state rates: across schools with results in both years, average ELA rose by less than 1 point, math by 2 points, and science by 4 points from 2024–25 to 2025–26; the ELA gap was essentially unchanged, while the math and science gaps each narrowed by about 1 point. SchoolDigger’s percentile histories also rose for Los Banos (4th to 12th), Atwater (2nd to 8th), and Valley Merced (6th to 10th). Context varies: the free/reduced lunch eligible measure in school year 2024–25 ranged from 60% at Floyd A. Schelby to 95% at Valley Merced, while student-teacher ratios ranged from 11.1 at Floyd A. Schelby to 27.2 at Come Back Charter. These figures do not sort schools consistently by test results, so families may want to weigh subject strengths alongside attendance and graduation.