Jackson Junior High, Jackson CA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Jackson Junior High

Jackson Junior High serves students in grades six through eight in Jackson, a small Gold Rush-era county seat in the Sierra Nevada foothills. The school sits within the Amador County Unified district and draws from a town that functions as both a civic center and a residential community with a walkable historic downtown but a car-dependent suburban-rural character beyond Main Street.

The school enrolls roughly a medium-sized cohort for its grade band, with a student body that is majority white and includes a substantial Latino population alongside smaller shares of Asian, multiracial, and Native American students. Just under half the enrollment qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a mixed-income student population.

In academic performance, Jackson Junior High faces significant proficiency challenges. State test results from the most recent school year show that just under a quarter of students tested met proficiency in math across both grade levels tested. English language arts proficiency ran somewhat higher, in the low-to-mid thirties. Science proficiency (grade eight only) was in the low thirties. When compared against the other districts in Amador County on an overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades, Jackson Junior High ranks in the top quartile, suggesting it performs better than the median district in the county, though this does not offset the fact that fewer than half its students are meeting grade-level standards in core subjects.

The one exception in the data is a social studies result from an earlier state assessment, which showed substantially higher proficiency. However, that test is no longer administered in California, so it provides a historical benchmark but not a current picture.

The school is a regular public school with no charter or magnet designation. It serves a community where median home values in the ZIP code are solid but not high by state standards, and where growth is deliberately paced. A parent considering Jackson Junior High should plan for a school addressing significant academic gaps in math and English language arts and may want to discuss directly with the school what supports and interventions are in place for students who are not yet proficient, and what the trajectory has been over recent years. State assessment participation and chronic absenteeism data were not available, so those are worth asking about separately. The school is part of a district serving the broader Amador County region; information on recent district changes or new initiatives was not readily located in a public search, so it would be worth checking with the district office directly for current priorities.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 724%

School 24% · District 15% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▼ 6 pts below state median

Grade 824%

School 24% · District 22% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 3 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 732%

School 32% · District 26% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▼ 13 pts below state median

Grade 833%

School 33% · District 33% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median

Science

Grade 831%

School 31% · District 28% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 5 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 862%

School 62% · District 54% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median

This schoolAmador County 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-income17%Higher-income44%27 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income34%Higher-income31%3 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income22%Higher-income41%19 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income7%Higher-income28%21 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income24%Higher-income24%0 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income21%Higher-income27%7 pp gap