Imperial Middle, La Habra CA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Imperial Middle

Imperial Middle serves students in grades six through eight in La Habra, a suburban Orange County city with family-oriented neighborhoods, parks, and a small-town feel alongside commercial corridors. The school sits within La Habra City Elementary School District, a K-8 system that recently won voter approval for a major bond to repair and modernize aging facilities across its nine schools.

The student body at Imperial Middle is predominantly Latino, with a substantial share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The school has a modest enrollment for its grade span. This profile reflects a working-family community with limited household economic resources and high housing costs relative to income in the area.

State assessment results show significant academic challenges. Proficiency in mathematics is notably low, with only a modest proportion of sixth and seventh graders and substantially lower rates among eighth graders meeting state standards. English language arts performance is somewhat higher than math but still below state midpoints, hovering in the low-to-mid range across all three grades. Science proficiency at eighth grade is very low. These results suggest the school would benefit from intensive support in core instruction, and a parent considering Imperial Middle may want to look into the school's current improvement efforts and the specific instructional strategies in place to address these gaps. The data available covers only the most recent school year, so trend information is not available to show whether performance is moving in any direction.

La Habra City Elementary School District has embarked on facility modernization through the recent bond approval, which will fund roof, plumbing, and electrical system repairs along with classroom and lab upgrades over multiple years. Additionally, the district is transitioning all Transitional Kindergarten and Kindergarten classes to full-day programs beginning in the 2026-2027 school year. These systemwide changes suggest the district is investing in both physical infrastructure and early childhood expansion, though they do not directly address middle-grade academic outcomes.

The broader community context shows a city with stable suburban amenities: approximately 20 parks, a public library, transit connections via OCTA bus, and modest downtown revitalization efforts centered on La Habra Boulevard. Housing costs are elevated relative to regional benchmarks and national averages, with median home values and rental rates both substantially above national norms. The local economy is anchored by healthcare, education, government, and retail sectors, with employers including Kaiser Permanente and St. Jude Medical Center alongside the school district itself.

Imperial Middle's position relative to other districts in Orange County places it in the bottom quartile for overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades. For a family considering this school, the academic data indicates a setting where students face significant learning gaps in core subjects. The school's role within a district investing in facility repair and early childhood programming shows some institutional momentum, but the current achievement levels warrant direct conversation with school leadership about instructional priorities, intervention supports, and realistic expectations for academic growth during the middle grades.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 626%

School 26% · District 34% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Grade 725%

School 25% · District 30% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 815%

School 15% · District 18% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 33 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 640%

School 40% · District 47% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Grade 743%

School 43% · District 49% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 834%

School 34% · District 43% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 27 pts below county median

Science

Grade 811%

School 11% · District 18% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 33 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 862%

School 62% · District 57% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

This schoolLa Habra City 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-income37%Higher-income57%20 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income38%Higher-income64%27 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income25%Higher-income76%51 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income26%Higher-income26%1 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income22%Higher-income39%17 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income10%Higher-income38%28 pp gap