Summary
Butterfield Charter is a 504-student K–12 alternative school in Porterville, California, in Porterville Unified. Its 2025–2026 graduation rate was 96%, higher than the district’s 93% and California’s 88%. The central academic finding, however, is that proficiency was low in all three tested subjects: 26% in English language arts (ELA), 2% in math and 7% in science.
Compared with the state and district, Butterfield was behind in every subject: its ELA results trailed them by 23 and 20 percentage points, its math results by 36 and 28 points, and its science results by 29 and 22 points, respectively. Among nearby schools with reported all-grade results, Butterfield ranked second-lowest in ELA and math and lowest in science. For example, ELA proficiency was 33% at Exeter Independent Study (Alternative) and 48% at Monarch River Academy, compared with Butterfield’s 26%. One encouraging comparison beyond testing is attendance: chronic absenteeism was 17%, matching the district and below the state’s 18%.
Results over time show progress in ELA, but not across the board. From 2022–2023 to 2025–2026, ELA proficiency rose 9 percentage points and the gap to the state narrowed by 6 points. Math increased by just 1 point, while science fell by 2 points. As context, Butterfield’s 2024–2025 student-teacher ratio was 20.6, the second-lowest among eight nearby schools in the comparison. In that same school year, 94% of students were reported as free/reduced lunch eligible, the highest share among nearby schools with the same measure. SchoolDigger’s figures are for the district, not the school: it ranks Porterville Unified 559th of 968 districts, at the 42nd percentile, with 2 stars. No comparable SchoolDigger school-level rank or star rating was provided.
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