# How California school performance is distributed

See how reading and math proficiency is distributed across California elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and districts.

## Methodology

This page groups the latest reading and math proficiency scores into 10-point score bands and compares the distribution across elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and districts. Distribution tables show the percentage of each cohort that falls into each score band, not raw counts, so the shapes are comparable.

## Median Scores by Entity Type

| Entity Type | Count | Median Reading | Median Math |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Elementary Schools | 4,839 | 43.3% | 37.0% |
| Middle Schools | 1,287 | 42.2% | 27.3% |
| High Schools | 1,489 | 53.6% | 21.4% |
| Districts | 1,015 | 44.2% | 30.6% |

## Reading Score Distribution

| Score Band | Elementary Schools | Middle Schools | High Schools | Districts |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 0-10 | 0.8% | 1.0% | 5.0% | 2.3% |
| 10-20 | 5.8% | 5.1% | 7.9% | 4.5% |
| 20-30 | 17.0% | 16.3% | 6.3% | 11.5% |
| 30-40 | 20.1% | 22.5% | 9.1% | 22.3% |
| 40-50 | 17.2% | 17.9% | 14.8% | 20.7% |
| 50-60 | 13.3% | 12.7% | 17.1% | 18.2% |
| 60-70 | 10.9% | 11.5% | 18.7% | 10.6% |
| 70-80 | 9.5% | 8.1% | 12.3% | 6.5% |
| 80-90 | 5.0% | 4.8% | 6.9% | 3.2% |
| 90-100 | 0.5% | 0.1% | 1.9% | 0.2% |

## Math Score Distribution

| Score Band | Elementary Schools | Middle Schools | High Schools | Districts |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 0-10 | 2.4% | 8.4% | 23.0% | 6.7% |
| 10-20 | 13.7% | 24.9% | 22.9% | 17.0% |
| 20-30 | 20.6% | 21.8% | 19.8% | 24.5% |
| 30-40 | 18.4% | 14.5% | 13.1% | 20.1% |
| 40-50 | 13.0% | 10.6% | 8.6% | 12.2% |
| 50-60 | 10.3% | 7.2% | 5.9% | 7.6% |
| 60-70 | 9.3% | 6.4% | 3.8% | 6.1% |
| 70-80 | 7.4% | 4.4% | 2.1% | 3.5% |
| 80-90 | 4.2% | 1.5% | 0.7% | 1.9% |
| 90-100 | 0.7% | 0.3% | 0.1% | 0.3% |

## Canonical URL

https://caschooltrends.com/research/california-school-performance-distribution