Alliance Susan and Eric Smidt Technology High vs Middle College High

Alliance Susan and Eric Smidt Technology High and Middle College High are both Los Angeles high schools serving grades 9–12, but their overall ratings diverge sharply. Middle College High scores 9.4 out of 10 against Alliance Smidt Tech's 8.8 — a meaningful gap that becomes more striking in state context: Middle College High ranks #70 of 9,533 California schools while Alliance Susan and Eric Smidt Technology High ranks #402. Both are strong performers in absolute terms, but Middle College High operates in a different tier entirely.

The academic and growth data explain that gap precisely. Middle College High posts a 9.6 academic score versus Alliance Susan and Eric Smidt Technology High's 8.0 — a 1.6-point difference — and the growth differential is even wider: 9.9 versus 7.6, a 2.3-point spread. That growth figure is particularly telling: Middle College High students are outpacing their academic starting points at a rate that almost no school in the state matches. Alliance Smidt Tech's scores are solid, but neither metric is competitive with its cross-town counterpart.

On demographics and classroom structure, the two schools differ in important ways. Alliance Susan and Eric Smidt Technology High serves 254 students with 97% qualifying for free or reduced lunch, making it one of the higher-poverty campuses in the city. Middle College High enrolls 353 students with 87% FRL — lower but still a predominantly low-income population. The student-teacher ratio swings significantly: Alliance Smidt Tech offers 14.1 students per teacher versus Middle College High's 22.1, meaning families choosing the charter school get materially smaller class sizes despite its lower academic scores.

Structurally, the schools represent different models. Alliance Susan and Eric Smidt Technology High is a charter school with a technology focus embedded in its name and mission, while Middle College High is a regular public school — typically meaning closer ties to a community college campus and accelerated dual-enrollment pathways. Both campuses sit 11.1 miles apart and cover the same 9–12 grade span, but the programmatic experience a student enters is fundamentally different: one built around a themed charter structure, the other around college-bridge acceleration.