Here's The Best School District In California: Report

PALO ALTO, CA — A new report has ranked the best school district in California, and the answer comes as no surprise. The website 24/7 Wall St., a Delaware corporation that publishes financial news and commentary, sifted through various school data to determine the best school district in every state.

In California, Palo Alto Unified School District topped the list. The district has 12,527 students and spends $16,154 per student, the analysis found. The high school graduation rate is 100 percent and 81.7 percent of adults have a bachelor's degree.

The company evaluated the districts by creating an index based on data in the following categories:

• Child poverty
• Spending per student
• Graduation rate
• Teachers per student
• Percentage of adults with a bachelor's degree
• Preschool enrollment
• Advanced Placement enrollment

Several school districts in the U.S. spend more than $50,000 per student on education each year, 24/7 Wall St. said, but others spend less than $2,000 per student.

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"That difference in spending contributes to major disparities in student outcomes throughout the country," the authors wrote. "The majority of a school's budget is spent on staff and teacher salaries. A school that is able to attract the best teachers can give their students a major advantage."

Indeed, wealthier areas often reap those rewards.

Local sources, including property taxes, account for about 44 percent of all school funding in the U.S. This means most of the best school districts are located in affluent counties where the majority of households earn more than double that of a typical American household.

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In Santa Clara County, which includes that school district, the median household income from 2012-2016 was $101,173, almost double the national average of $55,322. Furthermore, the poverty rate in the county was 9.3 percent, much lower than the national average of 12.7 percent.

The nationwide rankings report published on Monday follows a January report from the same site that found California overall ranked 35th in the country for best schools.

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Here’s a breakdown of schools in California, according to 24/7 Wall St.:

• High school graduation rate: 83 percent (21st lowest)
• Public school spending: $9,417 per pupil (8th lowest)
• 8th grade NAEP proficiency: 27.1% (math) 28.4% (reading)
• Adults with at least a bachelor’s degree: 32.9% (14th highest)
• Adults 25-64 with incomes at or above national median: 51.7% (21st highest)

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"California has the largest network of public schools in the country — and also one of the worst performing," the authors wrote. "Only 29.2% of fourth graders in the state are proficient in math, and only 27.8% are proficient in reading — each the third lowest share of any state. While low, the fourth grade reading proficiency rate is much improved from only a few years ago. Between 2003 and 2015, fourth grade reading proficiency increased by 7.0 percentage points, far outpacing the 4.9 percentage point improvement across the U.S. as a whole."

Furthermore, "Children who are raised speaking English as a second language often face additional academic challenges at American public schools. Only 64.1% of California students have parents who are fluent english speakers, the smallest share of any state in the country."

Patch reporter Dan Hampton contributed to this report.
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