El Cerrito Middle, Corona CA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on El Cerrito Middle

El Cerrito Middle sits on El Cerrito Road in Corona, a large Inland Empire city on the western edge of Riverside County. The school serves grades six through eight within the Corona-Norco Unified School District, and its enrollment puts it on the larger side for a middle school. It is a regular public school with no charter or magnet designation.

The academic picture on the California CAASPP assessments is genuinely mixed and worth reading carefully by grade. In sixth grade, ELA proficiency is very strong, among the highest rates a middle school in this region is likely to post, and sixth-grade math is also well above average. The story shifts in seventh and eighth grade, where both ELA and math proficiency drop substantially. Eighth-grade science on the CAST lands in a similar range to seventh- and eighth-grade math. Taken together, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile relative to districts in Riverside County, which is a meaningful position, but that aggregate result is partly carried by the standout sixth-grade ELA number. A parent whose student is entering seventh or eighth grade, or who has a student who struggles with math, may want to ask the school directly about supports, course pacing, and how the transition years are structured. No multi-year trend data was available, so whether these figures represent improvement, stability, or decline cannot be determined from what was reported.

A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which reflects the broader economic range of families Corona serves. The student body is racially and ethnically diverse, with Hispanic students making up the largest group, followed by white students and Asian students, with smaller shares of Black, multiracial, and other students. Data on English learner rates and special education participation were not reported.

Program offerings include band, orchestra, and theater, which gives students three distinct performing arts pathways during middle school. That breadth is worth noting for families whose students are developing musical or dramatic interests. No information on additional academic electives, sports, or student support programs appeared in the data.

On the housing side, the zip code around El Cerrito carries home values well above both the California statewide median and well above the national median, placing it among the pricier parts of Southern California. Rents in the area have been rising modestly year over year. Affordability is a real constraint here: the rent-to-income ratio and the gap between carrying a mortgage and renting both reflect a tight market. For families considering a move specifically to access this school, the housing cost is a meaningful variable.

Corona itself is a city that grew from a citrus-farming past into a dense suburban and commercial hub connected to Los Angeles and Orange County via the 91, 15, and 71 freeways and two Metrolink stations. Employers include Fender Musical Instruments, Monster Beverage, and Corona Regional Medical Center. The city is actively working to revitalize its historic downtown, with publicly reported plans to convert a stretch of Sixth Street into a pedestrian-focused corridor and redevelop mall properties near the Grand Boulevard circle. Much of the city outside downtown remains auto-oriented. Parks are plentiful, and the Cleveland National Forest is accessible from the area's edge.

No information on the district's current strategic priorities or recent policy changes surfaced during research, so that piece was left out rather than inferred. Chronic absenteeism and graduation rate data were not reported for this school, the latter because El Cerrito serves only middle grades.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 676%

School 76% · District 47% · ▲ 30 pts above district

▲ 46 pts above state median · ▲ 52 pts above county median

Grade 745%

School 45% · District 40% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Grade 844%

School 44% · District 40% · ▲ 5 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 694%

School 94% · District 62% · ▲ 32 pts above district

▲ 51 pts above state median · ▲ 53 pts above county median

Grade 763%

School 63% · District 57% · ▲ 5 pts above district

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

Grade 864%

School 64% · District 55% · ▲ 9 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 846%

School 46% · District 37% · ▲ 9 pts above district

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

Social studies

Grade 866%

School 66% · District 59% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

This schoolCorona-Norco 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-income91%Higher-income97%6 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income53%Higher-income81%29 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income57%Higher-income76%19 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income68%Higher-income84%17 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income35%Higher-income63%27 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income38%Higher-income55%17 pp gap