Summary:
ZIP code 90019 has two middle schools—Johnnie Cochran Junior Middle and Pio Pico Middle—and both serve grades 6–8. In 2025–2026, both were below state proficiency rates in all-grade English language arts (ELA), math, and science, but the results were not equally low: Pio Pico led Johnnie Cochran by 21 percentage points in ELA and 16 points in math. The biggest takeaway is that the two schools show a substantial achievement gap, particularly in ELA and math.
Pio Pico stands out at the top of this two-school group, with 39% proficient in ELA, 28% in math, and 16% in science; Johnnie Cochran was at 18%, 13%, and 15%, respectively. The science results were nearly alike, just 1 percentage point apart. One grade-level bright spot is Pio Pico’s eighth-grade ELA result: 50% proficient, narrowly above the state’s 49%; Johnnie Cochran had 16% in that grade. SchoolDigger ranks Pio Pico 1,666th of 2,703, in the 38th percentile with 2 stars, compared with Johnnie Cochran at 2,510th, the 7th percentile, with 0 stars.
Recent changes are mixed rather than a consistent rise: from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, Pio Pico gained 8 points in math and 10 in science, while ELA fell by 1 point; Johnnie Cochran gained 4 points in science, had little change in math, and fell 4 points in ELA. In 2024–2025, the schools reported similar, high free/reduced lunch eligible shares—95% at Johnnie Cochran and 96% at Pio Pico—and student–teacher ratios of 15.6 and 16.8, respectively; these are context, not explanations for test results. Chronic absenteeism in 2025–2026 was higher at Johnnie Cochran (36%) than at Pio Pico (23%), even though their science proficiency differed by only 1 point.
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