Best Public Schools in Jackson, CA

Jackson, California, has five schools serving grades K–12, with 1,614 students in total; four schools report 2025–2026 test results, while Amador County Special Education has 13 students and no results. Across the four schools with scores, results vary by subject, but math is the clearest shared concern: every school is far below the state.

Argonaut High stands out in All Grades ELA and science, with 56% in ELA and 37% in science—the highest results among the four schools and the only results above the state in those subjects. Its ELA is 7 points above the state, and science is 1 point above. Pine Grove Elementary STEM Magnet has the lowest All Grades ELA result, 29%, while Jackson Elementary leads math at 22%, just ahead of the other schools’ 20%–21%; even the top math result is 17 points below the state. The elementary-school comparison depends on grade: Jackson leads Pine Grove by 13 points in sixth-grade ELA and 10 points in sixth-grade math, while Pine Grove leads in fifth-grade ELA and science. All Grades comparisons are not fully like-for-like because schools serve different grade spans.

Results generally declined from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026 at the three schools other than Argonaut, which improved by 6 points in ELA, 6 in math and 11 in science. Across all four schools, the average fell 2 points in ELA and 3 in math, while science rose 1 point; Jackson Junior High also had the highest chronic absenteeism, at 25%, compared with 13% at Jackson Elementary. SchoolDigger rank percentiles declined over the three listed years at Jackson Elementary, Jackson Junior High and Pine Grove, while Argonaut rose from 47 to 57 in the latest year after an earlier decline. The reported free/reduced lunch eligible shares for 2024–2025 ranged from 34% at Argonaut to 49% at Jackson Elementary; student-teacher ratios ranged from 19.0 to 24.5.