Summary:
Zip code 92139 has one middle school, Bell Middle, serving grades 6–8 and enrolling 700 students; the available comparisons are with San Diego Unified and California, not local school peers. In 2025–2026, Bell’s all-grade proficiency was 27% in ELA, 13% in math, and 24% in science, below state results of 49%, 38%, and 36%, respectively. The most important finding is that Bell trailed the state in every reported subject, with the largest gap in math: 26 percentage points.
Because Bell is the only school in the list, there is no local top or bottom school to compare; its relative strengths and weaknesses are across subjects and grades. Science was closest to the state, 12 points behind, while math had the largest shortfall, followed by ELA at 23 points behind. Seventh grade was Bell’s highest-scoring grade in both reported subjects: ELA proficiency was 28%, versus 27% in grade 6 and 25% in grade 8; math was 14%, versus 12% and 11%. Even so, seventh grade remained below state results by 23 points in ELA and 24 points in math.
Results declined from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026: Bell’s proficiency fell by 9 points in ELA, 2 in math, and 1 in science, and its gaps to the state widened by 10, 4, and 5 points, respectively. SchoolDigger placed Bell at the 14th percentile in 2025–2026 (rank 2,320 of 2,703), down from the 31st percentile in 2024–2025 and 26th in 2023–2024; SchoolDigger gives the district 3 stars and a rank of 407 of 968. For context, 81% of Bell students were free/reduced lunch eligible in 2024–2025, and the student-teacher ratio was 21.4:1. Chronic absenteeism was 21% at Bell, compared with 17% for the district and 18% statewide.
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