Public school rankings · Irvine Unified
Middle schools in Irvine Unified School District (IUSD) serve grades 7 and 8, and five K-8 schools run from kindergarten through grade 8. This page lists these 11 schools in the order of the U.S. News 2026 public middle school rankings and sets out state test proficiency rates, enrollment, grade 7 math placement, world language courses and the application dates for school choice.
District average (English 74.5%, math 70.5%)California average (English 48.8%, math 37.3%)
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IUSD assigns one school for each grade span based on the home address, and new students must first enroll at the school assigned to that address. To find the elementary, middle and high school for a street address, use the district's School Locator for each one; the neighborhood name alone is not enough, because one neighborhood may be split between two schools.
Culverdale Elementary and Westpark Elementary share an attendance area: when one of them is full in a grade, the other becomes the assigned school. When schools in an attendance area are full, a student may be placed at another school and gains the right to continue there. Beginning in fall 2028, incoming grade 9 students from the Woodbury community will be assigned to Irvine High School.
Use the IUSD School Locator, or download the attendance maps for elementary, middle and high schools.
For communities built in recent years, the district publishes the assigned schools separately. The table below reproduces the district's table; for other communities, look up the address in the School Locator.
| Community | Elementary | Middle | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cadence Park | Cadence Park | Cadence Park | Portola |
| Cypress Village | Cypress Village | Jeffrey Trail | Irvine |
| Irvine Business Complex (north of 405, IUSD areas only) | Culverdale or Westpark (year-round) | South Lake | University or Woodbridge (north of Alton) |
| Los Olivos | Alderwood | Rancho San Joaquin | University |
| Luna Park (west of Bosque) | Cadence Park | Cadence Park | Portola |
| Luna Park (east of Chinon & Treble) | Solis Park | Solis Park | Portola |
| Orchard Hills | Canyon View | Sierra Vista | Northwood |
| Portola Springs (Neighborhoods 4 & 5) | Loma Ridge | Jeffrey Trail | Portola |
| Rise | Solis Park | Solis Park | Portola |
| Solis | Solis Park | Solis Park | Portola |
placement is based on grades, final exams, teacher evaluation and a foundational skills test.
Jeffrey Trail, Lakeside, Rancho San Joaquin, Sierra Vista and Vista Verde offer Spanish 1; IUSD Virtual Academy at San Joaquin offers Chinese, French, Korean and Spanish 1. The district does not run a dual language immersion program.
for grades 7 through 12 in the 2026-27 school year, the first-round application window was January 5 to 23, 2026, and the waitlist window is April 6 to June 5. Placement is by random lottery, and each application may name only one school.
IUSD is not certified by the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP). The district advises that enrolling students who hold B, F-1, J-1 or M visas may affect their visa status.
Ranks come from the U.S. News 2026 Best Public Elementary and Middle Schools rankings. Each school has two ranks: its rank within Irvine Unified School District and its rank in California. U.S. News gives a specific rank only to schools near the top; lower-ranked schools receive a range (for example, No. 21 to 28 in the district), and newly opened schools or schools with too few tested students are not ranked. The rankings are based mainly on state reading and math test results; the calculation is explained in the U.S. News methodology.
The proficiency rate is the share of students in all tested grades who met or exceeded the state standard (Standard Met or Exceeded) in English and math on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP), the statewide test. This page uses results from the 2024-25 school year (spring 2025), the most recent year published as of October 5, 2026. Tested grades are 3 through 6 at elementary schools, 3 through 8 at K-8 schools and 7 through 8 at middle schools.
Enrollment comes from the California Department of Education's DataQuest for the 2025-26 school year, and gifted programs and calendars come from the district website. Every elementary and K-8 school offers GATE cluster classes in grades 4 through 6, so the table lists only the programs that differ from school to school.
U.S. News methodology · Irvine Public Elementary School Rankings · Irvine Public High School Rankings · Irvine math placement and pathways
In the U.S. News 2026 rankings, the top five are Vista Verde School (No. 1 in the district, No. 11 in California); Sierra Vista Middle School (No. 2 in the district, No. 49 in California); Beacon Park School (No. 3 in the district, No. 53 in California); Rancho San Joaquin Middle School (No. 4 in the district, No. 62 in California); Lakeside Middle School (No. 5 in the district, No. 85 in California). Ranks come from the U.S. News 2026 public middle school rankings; K-8 schools are ranked on their middle school grades.
Families can apply for intradistrict school choice, which is decided by random lottery without regard to the reason for applying. For the 2026-27 school year, the first-round application window for grades 7 through 12 was January 5 to 23, 2026, and the waitlist window is April 6 to June 5; each application may name only one school. For 2026-27, Jeffrey Trail Middle School, Sierra Vista Middle School and three K-8 schools, Cadence Park, Solis Park and Beacon Park, accept applications only from siblings of current students.
Math acceleration in IUSD begins in grade 7; elementary schools do not separate students into faster and slower math classes. Grade 7 placement is based on grades, final exams, teacher evaluation and a foundational skills test. This step shapes a student's math sequence through middle and high school, so Irvine families should learn the placement requirements during grade 6.
According to the district's World Languages page, Jeffrey Trail, Lakeside, Rancho San Joaquin, Sierra Vista and Vista Verde offer Spanish 1, and the online school IUSD Virtual Academy at San Joaquin offers Chinese, French, Korean and Spanish 1. The district does not run a dual language immersion program.
K-8 schools run from preschool or kindergarten through grade 8, so students do not change schools in grade 7. Stand-alone middle schools serve only grades 7 and 8 and draw students from several elementary schools. Which type a student attends depends on the assigned school for the home address; switching to the other type is possible only through the school choice lottery.
Ranks link to the U.S. News page for Irvine Unified School District; each school's proficiency rate links to its California CAASPP results page, and enrollment links to DataQuest. School assignment, school choice, gifted programs and age rules all come from the IUSD website.
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