Summary
Philip Magruder Middle serves 635 students in grades 6–8 in Torrance, where families have several nearby middle schools to compare. Its 2025–26 scores were above California’s averages in English language arts (ELA), math, and science, but below the averages for Torrance Unified and the 10 nearby schools in the data. The most important concern is the substantial local gap: Magruder scored below all four nearby Torrance Unified middle schools in every tested subject, with the largest nearby-school-average gap in math.
Science is Magruder’s strongest subject relative to the state, while math is its weakest. Its proficiency was 55% in ELA, 42% in math, and 42% in science—about 5, 3, and 6 points above state results, respectively. But it was about 13, 20, and 14 points below the district in those subjects, and 10, 13, and 10 points below the nearby-school averages. Within the school, eighth-grade math is a particular concern: 36% were proficient, 10 points below seventh grade and just below the state’s eighth-grade result.
Over time, Magruder’s advantage over the state narrowed from 2022–23 to 2025–26, while its gaps with the district widened; its scores changed little overall, but district results rose, especially in science. SchoolDigger rates Magruder at the 70th statewide percentile with four stars; its percentile has slipped from 79 in 2018–19, though the star rating has remained four. In 2024–25, its student-teacher ratio was 27.2, the highest among the 10 nearby schools, whose average was 23.3; 51% of students were free/reduced lunch eligible. SchoolDigger’s subgroup rankings show a notable strength for English Language Learner Students: a 95th-percentile ranking in 2023–24, compared with the school’s overall 74th percentile that year. For Asian Students, the 2025–26 ranking was at the 47th percentile, below the school’s overall 70th percentile.
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