Scott Valley Junior High, Fort Jones CA

Original Research by School Decision on Scott Valley Junior High

Scott Valley Junior High serves grades six through eight in Fort Jones, a small agricultural town in Siskiyou County's Scott Valley. The school enrolls a small student body drawn from the town and surrounding valley, with a student body that is roughly evenly split between white students and a blend of multiracial, Hispanic, American Indian/Alaska Native, and other backgrounds. Just over half the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating moderate economic need in the community.

On state testing, the school's results show uneven performance across subjects and grades. In English Language Arts, proficiency ranges from the mid-thirties to mid-forties across grades six through eight, with eighth-grade performing highest. Math proficiency is notably lower, with seventh grade substantially weaker than sixth and eighth grades. Eighth-grade science proficiency sits in the low forties. The school's overall proficiency index places it above the midpoint among districts in Siskiyou County, a positioning that reflects reasonable performance within a rural county context, though the data shows clear room for strengthening, particularly in math and in seventh-grade instruction across subjects.

One year of state testing data was available; multi-year trend data to show whether performance is stable, improving, or declining was not present in the records. The school does not serve high school grades, so graduation rate information does not apply. Data on chronic absenteeism, staffing, course offerings, discipline, and special education enrollment were not available.

Fort Jones itself is a walkable, historic town centered on Main Street with locally-owned businesses and no chain stores. It is quiet and slow to change, with strong agricultural roots and a compact footprint. Housing values are moderate, and the cost-to-income ratio for homeownership is reasonable relative to the national benchmark. Employment is limited locally; many residents work in nearby Yreka or depend on school district and tribal government jobs. Growth is minimal: the town's housing element reflects a state-assigned need of only a handful of new units over eight years. The Scott Valley Unified School District office and elementary schools are located within the town, keeping school functions embedded in the community rather than on separate campuses.

A parent considering this school should understand it as a small-town junior high with mixed academic results, serving a stable, rural community where peers are drawn from a tight local area. The school's math performance warrants direct conversation with staff about instructional approaches and support for seventh graders. The absence of multi-year trend data means asking the school directly about whether results are moving and what recent changes in teaching or resources have been implemented would be worthwhile.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 635%

School 35% · District 35%

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 717%

School 17% · District 17%

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 836%

School 36% · District 36%

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 635%

School 35% · District 35%

▼ 9 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 740%

School 40% · District 40%

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 844%

School 44% · District 44%

even with state median · ▲ 17 pts above county median

Science

Grade 841%

School 41% · District 41%

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 23 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 851%

School 51% · District 50% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

This schoolScott Valley Unified, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 6Lower-income24%Higher-income58%34 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income32%Higher-income56%24 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income26%Higher-income75%49 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income20%Higher-income67%47 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income11%Higher-income31%21 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income22%Higher-income59%37 pp gap