Summary:
Zip code 95490 has one middle school, Baechtel Grove Middle, serving grades 6–8 with 331 students in Willits Unified. Its 2025–2026 proficiency results were well below state figures in every subject: 23% in ELA compared with 49% statewide, 6% in math compared with 38%, and 10% in science compared with 36%. The largest gap was in math, at 32 percentage points below the state; ELA and science were each about 26 points below.
There are no other schools in this ZIP code to rank above or below Baechtel Grove Middle, so it is both the top and bottom school in the list. Grade-level results show a few brighter comparisons with the district: the school was slightly ahead in math in all three grades, and grade 8 ELA was 2 points above the district. Its state gaps nevertheless remained substantial: grade 8 ELA had the smallest grade-matched gap, at 21.13 points, while math results were 29.23–31.73 points below state figures across grades 6–8. The all-grades comparison was less favorable against the district, with the school 2 points lower in ELA, 8 points lower in math and 4 points lower in science.
Recent results are mixed rather than consistently improving or declining. From 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, ELA proficiency rose 4 points and its state gap narrowed by 4 points; math fell 1 point and its gap widened by 2 points, while science fell 1 point and its gap widened by 5 points. SchoolDigger gave the school 0 stars and a 6th-percentile ranking in 2025–2026, up from the 4th percentile in 2023–2024 and unchanged from the prior year. Other context includes a 19.3 student-teacher ratio in 2024–2025, 60% free/reduced lunch eligible that year, and chronic absenteeism of 41% in 2025–2026, compared with 36% in the district and 18% statewide; these figures describe the school but do not explain its test results.
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