Baird Middle, Fresno CA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Baird Middle

Baird Middle sits on North Maroa Avenue in a residential stretch of north-central Fresno, serving grades five through eight as a regular public school within Fresno Unified. Its enrollment runs across four grade levels in roughly equal cohorts, making it a mid-sized middle school for its grade band.

On the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, Baird turns in results that are genuinely strong when placed against its neighbors. The school's overall proficiency index lands in the top quartile relative to districts in Fresno County, a comparison set of dozens of local districts. That standing reflects real performance across subjects. In English language arts, scores climb through the grade levels, with fifth grade already solid and eighth grade reaching a high mark that would be notable at any school. Math proficiency is more moderate, holding in the low-to-mid fifties for most grades while fifth grade comes in somewhat higher. Science, tested in fifth and eighth grade, shows a split: fifth graders perform well, while eighth-grade science proficiency drops considerably and is the clearest soft spot in the academic picture. Parents whose children have strong science interests may want to ask the school directly about how eighth-grade science is structured and supported.

Social studies assessment data from the most recent California statewide testing cycle was not available. The payload includes older results from a discontinued state assessment, so current social studies performance is a gap in what we can characterize.

Close to half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting a student body that spans a range of economic circumstances. Hispanic students make up the majority of enrollment, with white students the second-largest group and smaller shares of Asian, Black, and multiracial students. Data on English learner rates and students with IEPs was not reported, so we cannot characterize those populations from the available data.

Fresno Unified's district brief came back without confirmed recent parent-relevant changes, so we left that section out rather than speculate.

The surrounding neighborhood sits within Fresno's broader north side, a car-dependent part of a city that spreads outward from a revitalizing but still-rebuilding downtown core. Day-to-day life in most of Fresno runs on driving; the city's Walk Score is low overall, though pockets near the Tower District and the Cultural Arts corridor are genuinely walkable. Woodward Park, a large regional green space with trails, a Japanese garden, and an amphitheater, is nearby. The city's economy carries a strong agricultural imprint alongside government, healthcare, and manufacturing employment, with Community Regional Medical Center anchoring downtown and institutions like California State University, Fresno providing a university presence in the northeast.

Home values in the zip codes around Baird sit well below the California state median, which makes the area considerably more accessible by purchase than most of the Bay Area or Los Angeles. Rents have been rising modestly year over year. The local rent-to-income ratio is within a range that most financial planners consider manageable, though current mortgage rates make buying a tighter calculation than it was a few years ago. Fresno is actively trying to shift growth inward, with state funding flowing toward downtown housing and infrastructure and a future high-speed rail station integrated into long-term plans. That shift, if it accelerates, would change the urban texture of the city over the coming decade, though most of Baird's immediate neighborhood would be unaffected in the short term.

For a family weighing this school specifically, the academic profile is one of the stronger ones in a large, diverse county, with ELA results that stand out and math results that are solid if not exceptional. The science gap at eighth grade is worth a follow-up conversation. The peer environment is economically and ethnically mixed in ways that reflect the city around it. Chronic absenteeism data was not available, so we cannot say how attendance patterns bear on the day-to-day experience.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 560%

School 60% · District 26% · ▲ 34 pts above district

▲ 30 pts above state median · ▲ 32 pts above county median

Grade 651%

School 51% · District 29% · ▲ 22 pts above district

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

Grade 754%

School 54% · District 25% · ▲ 29 pts above district

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

Grade 853%

School 53% · District 21% · ▲ 32 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 568%

School 68% · District 36% · ▲ 32 pts above district

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

Grade 662%

School 62% · District 38% · ▲ 24 pts above district

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

Grade 775%

School 75% · District 36% · ▲ 39 pts above district

▲ 30 pts above state median · ▲ 35 pts above county median

Grade 881%

School 81% · District 33% · ▲ 48 pts above district

▲ 37 pts above state median · ▲ 45 pts above county median

Science

Grade 557%

School 57% · District 19% · ▲ 38 pts above district

▲ 29 pts above state median · ▲ 34 pts above county median

Grade 835%

School 35% · District 16% · ▲ 19 pts above district

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

Social studies

Grade 873%

School 73% · District 37% · ▲ 36 pts above district

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 41 pts above county median

This schoolFresno 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 5Lower-income53%Higher-income80%27 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income49%Higher-income76%27 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income72%Higher-income77%6 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income66%Higher-income92%27 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income53%Higher-income65%13 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income41%Higher-income62%22 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income40%Higher-income63%24 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income46%Higher-income58%13 pp gap