Summary
Bret Harte Middle is a San Jose Unified school in San Jose, California, serving 862 students in grades 6–8. Its most important distinction is consistently strong performance: in 2025–2026, it ranked among the top nearby schools in all three tested subjects.
Bret Harte is strongest in math: 81% of students were proficient, 42 percentage points above the state and 38 above the district. ELA proficiency was 75%, while science was 67%; those results were 26 and 31 points above the state, respectively. Compared with the district, the ELA and science leads were 24 and 26 points. Among nine nearby schools with scores, Bret Harte ranked second in ELA and math and third in science. ELA is its relative weak spot—not because results are low, but because its lead over the state and district is smaller than its math advantage. In grade-level results, sixth-grade ELA was less exceptional locally: it ranked third among nearby schools reporting that grade.
Results over time show math improving, while ELA has stayed nearly flat: from 2022–2023 to 2025–2026, math proficiency rose 6 percentage points, science rose 2, and ELA was essentially unchanged. Over that period, the state gap narrowed by 3 points in ELA and science, while the math gap widened by 2. SchoolDigger places Bret Harte at the 96th percentile statewide, with five stars, compared with the district’s 48th percentile and two stars; among nearby schools, only Union Middle ranks higher. One notable difference in SchoolDigger’s group rankings is that Bret Harte’s ranking for how well it serves White students is at the 80th percentile, below its overall 96th percentile. Chronic absenteeism was 8% in 2025–2026, compared with 22% districtwide. As context, the 2024–2025 student-teacher ratio was 21.1, and 12% of students were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.
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