Best Public Schools in Mather, CA

Mather has three schools serving kindergarten through grade 12: Mather Heights Elementary (K–5, 236 students) and Folsom Cordova K–8 Community Charter (K–8, 150 students), both in Folsom-Cordova Unified, plus Foundations Academy (alternative K–12, 171 students) in the Sacramento County Office of Education. The most important concern is Foundations Academy’s reported academic and attendance results: its 2025–2026 all-grades ELA was 0% and math was 7%, compared with 49% and 38% statewide; chronic absenteeism was 57% versus 18% statewide.

Mather Heights leads all-grades ELA and math, at 55% and 47%; it is 9 and 13 percentage points ahead of the charter, respectively. The charter leads reported science at 56%, 6 points above Mather Heights; Foundations’ science result was suppressed. At grade 5, both elementary schools exceed state results in ELA, math, and science: the charter leads ELA (67% versus 65%) and science (61% versus 50%), while Mather Heights is slightly ahead in math (56% versus 56%). The similar rounded math figures reflect a gap of less than one point. Foundations is an alternative school, so all-grades comparisons across these different grade spans are not perfectly like-for-like.

Results declined in ELA and math at both elementary schools from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026: Mather Heights fell 10 and 13 points, and the charter fell 7 and 9 points; the charter’s science result rose 12 points. SchoolDigger’s percentile rankings also dropped from 2023–2024 to 2025–2026, by 13 points at Mather Heights and 8 at the charter. The schools have similar 2024–2025 free/reduced lunch eligibility—38% at Mather Heights and 37% at the charter—while their 2024–2025 student-teacher ratios are 18.3 and 20.2. In 2025–2026, the charter’s chronic absenteeism was 2%, compared with 16% at Mather Heights, despite Mather’s stronger all-grades ELA and math; these figures describe differences, not causes.