Best Public Schools in Lathrop, CA

Lathrop, California, has eight listed schools: six elementary schools serving kindergarten through grade 8 and two high schools serving grades 9–12. The 2025–2026 results show a wide divide among the K–8 schools: three exceeded the state’s all-grades results in every subject, while three fell below in every subject. The most important finding for families is that school results vary substantially within the city, rather than following one consistent local pattern.

EPIC Academy leads the K–8 group, with 74% proficient in ELA, 68% in math, and 63% in science—13, 16, and 21 percentage points ahead of the next-best K–8 results. At the other end, Lathrop Elementary scored 26% in ELA, 12% in math, and 12% in science, trailing the next-lowest K–8 school, Joseph Widmer Junior Elementary, by 3, 5, and 6 points. Among 11th graders, the high schools were nearly tied in ELA; River Islands High led in math, 30% to 22%, while Lathrop High led in science, 32% to 19%.

Recent changes offer useful context: NextGeneration STEAM Academy improved in all three subjects from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, while EPIC declined in all three and remained the top K–8 scorer. SchoolDigger’s statewide percentile ranking also fell for both: NextGeneration went from 71 to 68, and EPIC from 92 to 87. K–8 averages moved from 50% to 48% in ELA and 41% to 38% in math; science rose from 31% to 33%, but the state result rose faster. For context, free/reduced lunch eligible shares in 2024–2025 ranged from 24% at EPIC to 72% at Lathrop Elementary, while K–8 student–teacher ratios ranged from 23.6 to 27.1; these figures do not by themselves explain test results. All-grades results do not adjust for grade span, so compare K–8 schools with one another and high schools using 11th-grade results.