Valley Center, CA schools
Valley Center’s public schools score well below California’s averages: 34% of students are proficient in reading against 48.5% statewide, and 87% of high schoolers graduate on time against 87.6%. Kids attend Valley Center Primary through grade 2, then Valley Center Elementary, Valley Center Middle or Pauma Elementary and Valley Center High.
Grades, test scores, graduation, spending and every school, from U.S. Department of Education data.
Valley Center’s School Grade: C+
The public schools Valley Center’s kids attend, from kindergarten through graduation, trail 57% of California’s districts on state tests and graduation. Among towns with similar incomes, they rank near the bottom.
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 Valley Center 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
87% graduate on time
The share of students who started ninth grade together and earned a regular diploma within four years.
Two districts serve Valley Center
Each district’s own page has its spending, test scores, enrollment and every school.
Colleges near Valley Center
There’s no college in Valley Center, but 20 colleges are within 30 miles. The closest is Westminster Theological Seminary in California in Escondido, 7.9 miles away.
10 more within 30 miles.
Straight-line distance from the center of Valley Center. Degree-granting colleges with students on campus. Colleges marked › have their own page; the others are too small or don’t report enough to the Department of Education for one.
All 5 schools in Valley Center
School data from the U.S. Department of Education (NCES). Ratings are from neighbors on TownTapestry.
Schools Valley Center kids attend in other towns
Public schools in Valley Center’s district that are located in Valley Center and Pauma Valley.