Summary
Manuel F. Cunha Intermediate serves 521 students in grades 6–8 in Half Moon Bay, a coastal community in San Mateo County. The clearest concern is that its 2025–2026 results were low compared with nearby middle schools, especially in math: 30% of students were proficient, the lowest result among the 10 nearby schools in the comparison.
Science is Cunha’s strongest subject relative to state results, while its nearby-school standing remains weak in all three core subjects. Proficiency was 39% in ELA, 30% in math, and 34% in science; the nearby-school averages were 67%, 60%, and 57%, respectively. Cunha was third-lowest in nearby-school science, but its results were still below the state by 2 points in science, 8 in math, and 10 in ELA, and below the district by 2, 4, and 6 points, respectively. Seventh grade had the school’s strongest ELA and math results; eighth grade was weakest in both.
Results show a mixed trend: science proficiency rose by 10 points from 2022–2023 to 2025–2026, while ELA increased by 1 point and math by 4; both ELA and math fell in the latest year. Chronic absenteeism improved steadily, dropping from 22% in 2021–2022 to 10% in 2025–2026, below the district’s 15% and the state’s 18%. SchoolDigger placed Cunha in the 45th percentile with 2 stars in 2025–2026, the lowest standing among the nearby schools, and its percentile fell 8 points from the prior year. Its 2024–2025 student–teacher ratio was 21.6, above the nearby average of 19.3; 28% of students were free/reduced lunch eligible that year. SchoolDigger’s statewide measure of how well Cunha serves Hispanic students ranked it in the 9th percentile in 2025–2026, down from the 17th percentile in 2023–2024; its measure for Low Socio Economic Status Students also ranked at the 9th percentile, down from the 39th percentile in 2023–2024.
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