International School of Monterey, Seaside CA

Original Research by School Decision on International School of Monterey

International School of Monterey is a public charter school in Seaside, California, serving kindergarten through eighth grade. Its enrollment is consistent across grade levels, making it a mid-sized school for its grade band. The student body is diverse: Hispanic students make up the largest group, followed by white students, students of two or more races, and smaller proportions of Asian, Black, and other backgrounds. A meaningful but not majority share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, suggesting an economically mixed community. Data on English learner enrollment and special education identification rates were not available in what we received.

On California's state assessments, the school's academic results are a genuine soft spot and worth understanding clearly. In both English language arts and math, proficiency rates across grades three through eight sit below what most parents would hope for. Math results are particularly modest at the middle school transition point before recovering somewhat by eighth grade. ELA tells a more varied story: the earlier elementary grades are in a similar range as math, but the seventh and eighth grade ELA results are meaningfully stronger, with seventh grade showing the highest performance of any grade-subject combination the school reports. Science proficiency at the tested grades is also modest. Across all tested subjects and grades combined, the school lands above the midpoint relative to districts in Monterey County, which means its results, while not high in absolute terms, compare reasonably well to many of its local peers. Only a single year of data is available, so there is no multi-year trend to assess. A parent who wants to understand what's driving these patterns, and what the school is doing in response, would do well to ask directly.

The school reports a music program. No other program offerings appeared in the data, and the school's website would be the right place to look for a fuller picture of arts, enrichment, or extracurricular options. Because this school ends at eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to report, and AP or dual-enrollment pathways are not applicable here.

The charter governance means the school operates under a specific educational mission, separate from the traditional district structure, though the data does not spell out what that mission is or what makes its program distinct beyond the name. Families considering this school would benefit from visiting and asking about the school's instructional approach, language programming, and what the "international" designation means in practice.

Seaside sits on the Monterey Peninsula in a coastal stretch of Central California. Detailed information about the character of the immediate neighborhood around the school, local walkability, employers, or recent development was not available from the sources we searched. What the housing data does show is that home values in the area are well above the California statewide median, itself already elevated, and significantly above national norms. Rents are similarly high. The area is expensive to live in, and home values have dipped slightly in the past year while rents have edged up, a combination that compresses affordability further for families weighing a move.

No parent-relevant district-level changes were confirmed through our research, so we have left that section out rather than speculate.

For a family in Seaside already, the school offers a diverse, moderately sized K-8 setting with test results that trail the top of the county but hold their own against many local schools. The math results, particularly in the middle grades, are worth a conversation with school leadership. For families relocating to the area and weighing housing costs against school options, the high cost of the Seaside market is a real factor, and this school's academic profile sits solidly in the middle of its local peer group rather than at either extreme.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 331%

School 31% · district not reported

▼ 12 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 428%

School 28% · district not reported

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

Grade 533%

School 33% · district not reported

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 620%

School 20% · district not reported

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

Grade 739%

School 39% · district not reported

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

Grade 840%

School 40% · district not reported

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 17 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 341%

School 41% · district not reported

even with state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Grade 438%

School 38% · district not reported

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Grade 539%

School 39% · district not reported

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 639%

School 39% · district not reported

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

Grade 769%

School 69% · district not reported

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 31 pts above county median

Grade 856%

School 56% · district not reported

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

Science

Grade 527%

School 27% · district not reported

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 829%

School 29% · district not reported

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

This schoolDistrict average, 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 3Lower-income32%Higher-income48%16 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income32%Higher-income41%10 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income19%Higher-income47%28 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income43%Higher-income37%6 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income55%Higher-income78%23 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income15%Higher-income71%56 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income18%Higher-income41%23 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income26%Higher-income29%3 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income19%Higher-income39%20 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income19%Higher-income20%1 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income25%Higher-income47%22 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income8%Higher-income51%44 pp gap