Palo Alto, CA schools
Palo Alto’s public schools score well above California’s averages: 80% of students are proficient in reading against 48.5% statewide, and 94% of high schoolers graduate on time against 87.6%. Kids attend one of 12 schools through grade 12, then one of 11 high schools, one of 4 high schools and Palo Alto High or Henry M. Gunn High or Packard Children's Hospital/Stanford.
Grades, test scores, graduation, spending and every school, from U.S. Department of Education data.
Palo Alto’s School Grade: A
The public schools Palo Alto’s kids attend, from kindergarten through graduation, outperform 94% of California’s districts on state tests and graduation. Among towns with similar incomes, they rank near the top.
How the School Grade works
- Results, not inputs. Math and reading proficiency on California’s state tests, each against the state average, plus the four-year graduation rate. Spending and class size are shown below but don’t count toward the grade. Tests: 2020–21; graduation: class of 2020.
- The whole path. A town’s grade follows its kids: every district that serves it, weighted by the number of students tested in each. Tests count 60% and graduation 40%.
- Graded within the state. Each state writes its own tests, so districts are lined up against the rest of California only. A+ top 5%A next 10%A- next 10%B B+ to B−, next 30%C C+ to C−, next 30%D D and D−, bottom 15%
- Individual schools are graded the same way on their own test results, against every public school in California with 25+ students. Private schools aren’t graded: they don’t take the state tests.
- What a grade can’t tell you. Test results track family income closely, so a high grade partly reflects who lives in a town. That’s why we also compare towns with similar incomes. Visit, ask other parents, and read neighbor reviews. It’s our own summary of U.S. Department of Education data, not an official rating.
Where Palo Alto kids go to school
Based on district boundaries from the U.S. Department of Education. Check with the district before you enroll.
Well above the state in reading
94% graduate on time
The share of students who started ninth grade together and earned a regular diploma within four years.
Three districts serve Palo Alto
Each district’s own page has its spending, test scores, enrollment and every school.
All 37 schools in Palo Alto
School data from the U.S. Department of Education (NCES). Ratings are from neighbors on TownTapestry.