Walnut Creek Intermediate, Walnut Creek CA

Original Research by School Decision on Walnut Creek Intermediate

Walnut Creek Intermediate serves about a thousand sixth, seventh, and eighth graders across three evenly distributed grades in a standard suburban middle school setting. The student body is diverse: roughly half white, with substantial Hispanic and Asian populations, alongside smaller shares of Black students and multi-racial students. About one in seven students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the relative affluence of the surrounding community.

The school sits in Walnut Creek proper, a built-out Bay Area suburb anchored by an upscale downtown shopping district and surrounding single-family residential neighborhoods that developed in waves from the 1950s onward. The town is nearly full; new growth is concentrating in downtown infill and transit-oriented development near the BART station. Housing values are high, and the local economy is driven heavily by health care, with John Muir Health and Kaiser Permanente among the largest employers. Daily life combines downtown walkability with car-dependent outer neighborhoods, and transit to Oakland and San Francisco is available via BART. Open space and trail systems, including the Iron Horse Regional Trail, are woven through the city.

Academically, Walnut Creek Intermediate shows solid proficiency in English language arts, where about seven in ten students across the sixth through eighth grades scored proficient or above on the state test. Math proficiency is somewhat lower but still solid, ranging from about six in ten in sixth grade to seven in ten in seventh grade, then settling back to about six in ten in eighth. Science proficiency in eighth grade, the only grade tested in that subject, sits at about one in two. These results position the school above the midpoint among districts in Contra Costa County on overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades.

The most recent one-year snapshot does not permit trend analysis. State test data come from spring 2025. No information is available about the school's chronic absenteeism rate, graduation rate, or special populations such as students with individualized education programs or English learners. Those gaps reflect either the grade band (no graduation data apply to middle school) or missing reporting.

The Walnut Creek Elementary School District, which operates this school, is managing significant capital work. Voters approved Measure J, a school facilities bond, in 2022. Construction is running each summer from 2024 through 2027, modernizing all elementary campuses with upgraded classrooms, security systems, dining spaces, and learning environments. In June 2026, the district placed a new parcel tax measure on the ballot to address reported per-pupil funding that lags the county average; early returns showed it short of the two-thirds threshold needed to pass. This context matters for families considering the school: the district is investing in infrastructure while facing funding pressure that could affect program and class-size stability going forward.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 660%

School 60% · District 64% · ▼ 4 pts below district

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

Grade 770%

School 70% · District 71% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 865%

School 65% · District 64%

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

English language arts

Grade 673%

School 73% · District 75% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Grade 769%

School 69% · District 70% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 870%

School 70% · District 71% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 851%

School 51% · District 51%

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

Social studies

Grade 879%

School 79% · District 79%

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

This schoolWalnut Creek 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-income49%Higher-income78%29 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income48%Higher-income73%25 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income40%Higher-income76%36 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income41%Higher-income64%23 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income56%Higher-income73%17 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income23%Higher-income74%50 pp gap