Best Public Schools in Willows, CA

Willows, California, a small city in Glenn County, is served by six public schools across three districts, educating approximately 1,659 students from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Among these schools, Willows High stands out as the strongest performer, with a high graduation rate of 96.5% and the best test scores in the area, showing consistent improvement over recent years. In contrast, the two elementary schools, including Murdock Elementary, rank in the bottom quarter of the state, and Willows Intermediate shows a notable drop in math proficiency by 8th grade. Walden Academy, a charter school in its own district, operates with much lower per-student spending but achieves academic results similar to the higher-spending schools in the Willows Unified district.

The area's alternative schools, Glenn County Special Education and Willows Community High, face significant challenges with chronic absenteeism and low academic proficiency, though the special education program has a very low student-teacher ratio. A notable strength across the city is in Spanish language instruction at the high school level. Overall, while the high school performs well, the data suggests foundational academic challenges begin in the earlier grades, and there is a wide variation in how resources are allocated across schools.