Discovery Charter, Tracy CA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Discovery Charter

Discovery Charter is a middle school serving grades five through eight in Tracy, a Central Valley city that is growing through master-planned residential development while maintaining a historic downtown core. The school is small, with an enrollment split roughly evenly across its grade bands. Just over a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with substantial shares of white and Asian students, and smaller Black enrollment.

The school's academic performance shows a clear split between English language arts and mathematics. In ELA across all grades, around half of students meet proficiency standards, with results stable across the grade band. In mathematics, proficiency falls well below that level. The gap is steepest in eighth grade, where math proficiency drops to around one-fifth of students. Science proficiency also sits in the low range, with less than one-third of students meeting standards in both grades five and eight. Overall, when comparing across tested subjects and grades, Discovery Charter's proficiency index places it above the midpoint among the school districts operating in San Joaquin County, though the school itself is a charter not directly comparable to traditional district schools in that measure.

The ELA-math gap is worth understanding if your child is being considered for enrollment. For many students, the transition through middle grades involves increasing math complexity, and proficiency rates typically decline as grades progress. At Discovery Charter, that pattern holds, suggesting the school's students face similar challenges many do at this stage. What a parent may want to explore directly with the school is whether the charter has specific interventions or support pathways for students below grade level in math, and how those align with your family's needs.

Discovery Charter operates as part of the Tracy Learning Center, a directly-funded TK-12 charter authorized by Tracy Unified, so the school sits within a longer instructional pipeline. No recent major curriculum, pedagogy, or operational shifts were found. The extended school year is a longstanding feature, not a recent change.

Tracy itself is a commuter-oriented city with significant new residential construction underway, particularly in large master-planned communities on the southwest side. The historic downtown and a few established neighborhoods offer walkability, but most of the city is car-dependent. The economy is anchored by logistics, distribution, and food processing operations exploiting the city's location near major highways and the Port of Stockton. Housing values in the area are below state levels, making Tracy an affordable option for families seeking Central Valley proximity to the Bay Area.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 533%

School 33% · district not reported

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

Grade 630%

School 30% · district not reported

even with state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 728%

School 28% · district not reported

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

Grade 822%

School 22% · district not reported

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

English language arts

Grade 554%

School 54% · district not reported

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

Grade 656%

School 56% · district not reported

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

Grade 748%

School 48% · district not reported

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Grade 844%

School 44% · district not reported

even with state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Science

Grade 529%

School 29% · district not reported

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Grade 827%

School 27% · district not reported

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▲ 8 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 5Lower-income54%Higher-income54%0 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income31%Higher-income68%37 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income32%Higher-income54%22 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income30%Higher-income54%24 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income39%Higher-income30%9 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income10%Higher-income40%30 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income12%Higher-income33%21 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income14%Higher-income27%13 pp gap