Best Public Schools in Pinole, CA

Pinole, California, has seven schools: five elementary schools, one middle school and one high school, serving students from elementary grades through high school. In 2025–26, the seven schools’ average proficiency was below the state average in ELA by 5 percentage points, math by 2 points and science by 9 points. The central finding is that those averages hide large school-to-school differences.

West County Mandarin is the clearest standout: it led Pinole with 64% proficiency in ELA, 62% in math and 51% in science, exceeding state results by 15, 24 and 15 points, respectively. SchoolDigger ranks it in California’s 83rd percentile. At the other end, Shannon Elementary had 28% ELA, 26% math and 15% science proficiency—21, 12 and 21 points below the state—and a SchoolDigger ranking in the 22nd percentile. Ellerhorst Elementary also stands out among elementary schools, with 50% ELA and 46% math, both above state results. Stewart Elementary is a science bright spot: 43% proficiency, 7 points above the state, despite below-state ELA and math.

Recent results point in different directions: Pinole Middle improved 3 points in ELA, 10 in math and 10 in science from 2024–25 to 2025–26, while Shannon fell 7 points in ELA and 2 in math. SchoolDigger’s three-year statewide percentile ranking for Pinole Middle rose from 22 to 29 to 39; Shannon’s fell from 54 to 33 to 22. Pinole Valley High has a mixed picture: graduation was 93%, above the state’s 88%, but 11th-grade science proficiency was 11%, compared with 38% statewide. As context, free/reduced lunch eligible rates in 2024–25 were 34% at West County Mandarin and 49% at Stewart; their student-teacher ratios were 22.9 and 20.4. These figures describe the schools but do not explain their results. Schools serve different grade spans, so broad all-grades comparisons are not perfectly like-for-like.