Summary:
Foster City’s five public schools—four elementary schools serving kindergarten through fifth grade and one middle school serving grades 6–8—enroll 2,651 students. In 2025–2026, their average proficiency was 72% in English language arts, 74% in math and 63% in science, compared with California’s 49%, 38% and 36%; every school exceeded the state rate in all three subjects, and math had the largest average advantage, at 36 percentage points.
Among the elementary schools, Brewer Island Elementary leads in all-grades ELA (74%) and math (77%). Foster City Elementary has the lowest elementary ELA result (68%), but the second-highest math result (75%); Audubon Elementary has the lowest elementary math result (73%). Bowditch Middle leads the five-school group in all-grades ELA and science, though it serves different grades, so those comparisons are not like-for-like. Grade-level results show especially large fourth-grade differences: Brewer Island’s ELA and math results of 75% and 85% are 18 and 20 points above Audubon’s. Beach Park Elementary has the lowest chronic absenteeism, 4%, and leads fifth-grade ELA at 87%.
Results changed unevenly: the five-school average rose 2 points in ELA and 10 in science from 2024–2025, while math was essentially flat; the average advantage over the state widened in ELA and science and narrowed by 1 point in math. Audubon improved in all three subjects, while Beach Park’s science rose 25 points and its math fell 4. SchoolDigger’s 2025–2026 statewide rankings put all five at or above the 89th percentile: Beach Park rose from the 87th to the 91st percentile over the three years, while Bowditch moved from the 96th to the 94th. Student–teacher ratios ranged from 21.2 to 23.1 in 2024–2025. The reported free/reduced lunch eligible measure for 2024–2025 ranged from 12% at Foster City Elementary to 21% at Audubon; these figures are context, not an explanation of achievement. All-grades comparisons between Bowditch and the elementary schools are not grade-matched.
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