Lipman Middle, Brisbane CA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Lipman Middle

Lipman Middle serves sixth through eighth grade in Brisbane, a small residential community in San Mateo County just south of San Francisco. The school sits at 1 Solano Street in the central part of town, integrated into the community fabric rather than isolated on a distant campus.

The school enrolls a diverse student body of about that size across its three grades, with a roughly balanced mix of students of color and white students, and with Asian, Hispanic, white, and multiracial students forming the largest groups. About a quarter of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting moderate economic diversity within a region known for high housing costs. Data on English learners and students receiving special education services was not available.

On California's most recent state assessments, Lipman's overall proficiency across tested subjects sits above the midpoint among the districts in San Mateo County. In English language arts, the school shows strength, particularly in seventh grade where proficiency runs solid. Sixth-grade ELA proficiency is lower, and students show more mixed results in math, with a declining pattern across the grade levels. Eighth-grade math proficiency falls to about half. Science proficiency in eighth grade is notably weak, at roughly a third of students meeting standards. The school's ELA performance outpaces its math and science results, a pattern worth understanding with the school directly as it weighs instructional priorities and support structures.

Brisbane is experiencing an aging housing stock and tight inventory, with a housing market shaped by proximity to San Francisco and limited new development. The defining local growth project is the Brisbane Baylands, a large former railyard and landfill site south of town. Voters narrowly approved rezoning it in 2018, and the current plan includes roughly a middle school as part of broader residential and commercial development. As of mid-2026, the project is moving through environmental review and planning workshops, with no construction underway. That timeline means Lipman will remain the district's sole middle school serving Brisbane students for the foreseeable future.

The Brisbane School District recently faced fiscal uncertainty: a special parcel tax that funds libraries, programs, technology, and staffing was set to expire in June 2026. A renewal measure fell just short of the required approval in the June ballot, putting substantial annual program funding at risk. Families should ask the school directly how this affects support services, technology access, and staffing. On the instructional side, the district implemented universal dyslexia and early reading-difficulty screening for first and second graders beginning in the 2025-26 school year, with evidence-based follow-up supports for students flagged as at risk, reflecting a statewide shift in early literacy intervention.

Lipman is a regular public middle school with no magnet designation or charter status. Title I status was not reported in available data. The school's setting is central Brisbane, walkable from much of the city's residential neighborhoods, with downtown anchored by Visitacion Avenue and the Brisbane Community Park nearby.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 663%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 33 pts above state median · ▲ 22 pts above county median

Grade 758%

School 58% · District 58%

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

Grade 854%

School 54% · District 54%

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

English language arts

Grade 651%

School 51% · District 51%

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

Grade 770%

School 70% · District 70%

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

Grade 867%

School 67% · District 67%

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

Science

Grade 829%

School 29% · District 29%

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

Social studies

Grade 867%

School 67% · District 67%

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

This schoolBrisbane Elementary, 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-income62%46 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income33%Higher-income79%45 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income25%Higher-income76%51 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income25%Higher-income66%41 pp gap