El Dorado Union High

The six high schools in El Dorado Union High serve 6,410 students: Oak Ridge High serves grades 8–12, and the other five schools serve grades 9–12. In 11th grade, the six-school averages were 61% proficient in ELA, 37% in math and 44% in science, compared with state figures of 57%, 32% and 38%. Four of six schools exceeded the state in ELA and math, and five did so in science. Yet the gap between the highest- and lowest-scoring schools was 64 points in ELA, 63 in math and 68 in science. Most important, averages above the state mask very wide differences among schools.

Pacific Crest Academy leads 11th-grade ELA at 81%, 6 points ahead of second-place Ponderosa High at 76%. Oak Ridge High leads math at 63%, 9 points above Ponderosa, and science at 68%, 11 points above Pacific Crest. Ponderosa is a consistent high scorer, placing second in ELA and math and third in science. At the other end, Independence Continuation has the lowest result in all three subjects: 18% in ELA and 0% in math and science. Its results are 39 points below the state in ELA, 32 in math and 38 in science.

From 2024–25 to 2025–26, all-grades school averages rose by 1 point in ELA, 2 in math and 5 in science, but that improvement was not shared by every school: El Dorado High declined in all three subjects, while Ponderosa, Union Mine High and Pacific Crest improved in all three. SchoolDigger ranks Oak Ridge at the 93rd percentile, Ponderosa at the 90th and Independence at the 11th. The schools report free/reduced lunch eligible figures for 2024–25: 10% at Oak Ridge, 37% at Union Mine, 38% at El Dorado and 64% at Independence. Despite similar figures, Union Mine’s 11th-grade results exceed El Dorado’s by 16 points in ELA, 10 in math and 5 in science. Enrollment and student–teacher ratios also do not sort schools neatly: Oak Ridge has 2,346 students and a 25.4 ratio, while the smaller Pacific Crest leads ELA and the similarly small Independence has the lowest scores.