Summary:
Zip code 85550 has four schools in San Carlos Unified District, serving elementary, middle, and high-school students, with 1,438 students combined. The schools range in size from 37 students at San Carlos Alternative High School to 673 at Rice Elementary School. The clearest concern in the reported results is that even the stronger visible test scores are far below state rates: Rice reports 9% proficiency in English Language Arts (ELA) and 12% in math, compared with 41% and 33% statewide.
Rice Elementary leads San Carlos Middle School in both reported subjects, by 2 percentage points in ELA (9% to 7%) and 6 points in math (12% to 6%). Still, Middle’s results are 34 points below the state in ELA and 27 points below in math; Rice is 32 and 21 points below, respectively. For high-school outcomes, San Carlos High School stands out for graduation: its 2024–25 rate was 81%, about 1 point above the state’s 80%. Its dropout rate was 9%, about 4 points above the state’s 5%. Alternative High had a much higher reported dropout rate, 46%, compared with 5% statewide.
SchoolDigger’s reported histories show declining relative standing for High and Middle, though rankings are not test scores: High’s percentile fell from 14 in 2020–21 to 1 in 2022–23, while Middle went from 2 to 0; Rice was at the 0th percentile in its listed years. The latest listed SchoolDigger ratings were 0 stars for all three, with ranks of 896 of 900 for Rice, 854 of 854 for Middle, and 464 of 469 for High. Rice and Middle have student–teacher ratios of 13.4 and 14.7, respectively, while High’s is 15.7; these figures alone do not explain differences in results. High-school test scores are suppressed, so the list does not support a test-score comparison for either high school.
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