Summary:
Zip code 91103 contains one public middle school, Octavia E. Butler Magnet, serving grades 6-8 within the Pasadena Unified School District.
This magnet school serves 481 students, but its academic performance is significantly below average. In the 2024-2025 school year, only about 37% of students were proficient in English and 22% in math, which is well below both the district and state averages. A concerning trend shows that student proficiency in these subjects tends to decline as they move from 6th to 8th grade. The school also struggles with chronic absenteeism, with about a quarter of students missing too much school, a rate higher than the state average.
Despite these challenges, the school shows recent signs of improvement, moving from a 1-star to a 2-star rating in state rankings. It serves a population where over 70% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and it operates with substantial resources, spending over $27,000 per student. For parents, this indicates a school with significant needs that is receiving considerable investment and has begun to make progress, though it still has considerable ground to cover to reach typical academic benchmarks.
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