Donald S. Jordan Intermediate, Garden Grove CA

Original Research by School Decision on Donald S. Jordan Intermediate

Donald S. Jordan Intermediate serves seventh and eighth graders in Garden Grove, a multicultural Orange County city known as the center of the Vietnamese-American community and home to a significant Korean commercial corridor. The school sits within a district that is the third largest in Orange County and one of the major employers in the city.

The school's academic profile shows moderate proficiency across tested areas. In English language arts, students score around two-thirds proficient in both grades, a rate above the midpoint for schools across Orange County's districts. Mathematics proficiency is lower, with grade seven at roughly three-fifths proficient and grade eight dropping to near six in ten, a more typical county position. Science proficiency at grade eight falls just above half. The school's overall proficiency index ranks it above the median for Orange County intermediate schools.

The student body reflects Garden Grove's diversity, with a dominant Asian population (well over half the enrollment) alongside a substantial Hispanic population (roughly one-third). A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a school serving families with limited household income. The school has a fairly balanced enrollment between seventh and eighth grade, making it a standard-sized intermediate school for the district.

Garden Grove itself is a postwar suburban grid built out with single-family neighborhoods, commercial corridors, and parks. Housing costs are high relative to county and state benchmarks. The city is actively developing mixed-use infill projects to address state housing mandates, with the largest project (Brookhurst Place in OC Koreatown) bringing new residential and commercial space. A civic center anchors the community near Acacia and Civic Center Drives, and several schools sit within or near downtown, weaving school and civic life into the city's base rather than isolating them on remote campuses. Bus service is available through OCTA, and the OC Streetcar, a rail line through Santa Ana and Garden Grove, was in testing with revenue service expected in 2027.

The district brief found no major policy shifts or referenda in recent years with lasting impact on parent experience. Routine bond measures and board elections proceeded as scheduled, but no district-wide curriculum, pedagogy, or resource change could be confirmed from the available record.

A parent considering Jordan Intermediate should understand that the school draws from a lower-income, majority-Asian and Hispanic student population with strong ELA performance relative to its county peers but moderate math and science proficiency. The setting is suburban and car-oriented, though downtown civic amenities and transit projects are gradually reshaping connections. The school offers the standard middle grades pathway without specialized programs detailed in available data.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 762%

School 62% · District 50% · ▲ 12 pts above district

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

Grade 856%

School 56% · District 49% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 766%

School 66% · District 64% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Grade 865%

School 65% · District 59% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 21 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Science

Grade 855%

School 55% · District 43% · ▲ 11 pts above district

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

Social studies

Grade 864%

School 64% · District 58% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

This schoolGarden Grove 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 7Lower-income64%Higher-income78%14 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income61%Higher-income90%30 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 7Lower-income60%Higher-income73%13 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income53%Higher-income69%16 pp gap