Summary:
The six schools in the Sacramento County Office of Education include five high schools and one alternative school, serving reported grade spans from K–12 to grades 7–12, with enrollments from 41 to 280 students. In 2025–26, the schools’ average proficiency was 6% in English language arts, 2% in mathematics and 5% in science, compared with state results of 49%, 38% and 36%, respectively. The science average includes only four schools with numeric results; the gaps to the state were 44 points in ELA, 37 in math and 31 in science. The most important finding is that average proficiency is far below the state in every subject.
Different schools lead in different subjects, but even the leaders are well below state results. Palmiter Special Education had the highest ELA result at 16%, ahead of North Area Community at 11%; Palmiter’s result was 12 points above the average for the other five schools. Foundations Academy led math at 7%, compared with an average of 1% at the other schools. North Area led among reported science results at 11%. At the other end, ELA was 0% at Foundations, Nathaniel S. Colley Senior High and El Centro Junior/Senior High; math was 0% at four schools, including El Centro. El Centro’s other measures are more positive: its 50% graduation rate was the highest reported, and its chronic absenteeism was 0.6%, while all three proficiency results were 0%. Science results for Foundations and Palmiter are state-suppressed.
Recent changes are mixed: ELA’s group average edged up from 5% to 6%, while math fell from 3% to 2%; science was nearly unchanged at about 5% among the four schools with results in both years. SchoolDigger’s current rankings are low where shown: North Area is at the 25th percentile, Colley at the 12th and El Centro at the 1st. Ratios offer another point of comparison: Palmiter is at 8.2 students per teacher and Foundations at 8.5, while Colley is at 33.1. The schools’ free/reduced lunch eligible shares in 2024–25 ranged from 30% at Foundations to 96% at El Centro; these figures provide context, not an explanation for school results.
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