Best Public Schools in Zip Code 90405

ZIP code 90405 has six schools in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified district: three elementary schools, one middle school, two high schools, and grade spans from kindergarten through grade 12, including a K–8 school. The five schools with reported 2025–26 proficiency results were all above state rates, but attendance and graduation figures raise a serious concern at Olympic High (Continuation): chronic absenteeism was 94%, compared with 15% districtwide and 18% statewide, and its 80% graduation rate was 8 points below the state’s. Olympic’s attendance and graduation measures are the area’s sharpest warning signal.

Among schools with reported results, Santa Monica High led all-grades ELA at 83%, while Grant Elementary led math at 70% and science at 63%. Will Rogers Elementary had the lowest reported ELA and math results, at 53% and 45%, and John Adams Middle had the lowest science result, at 43%; each was still above the state in those subjects. The differences are substantial: all-grades scores ranged 30 points in ELA, 25 in math, and 20 in science. Same-grade results also show a large elementary-school gap: in grade 4, Grant was ahead of Will Rogers by 34 points in both ELA and math.

Across the same five schools, average scores rose only slightly from 2024–25 to 2025–26 in ELA and math, and by 2 points in science; the state improved faster, so the schools’ average lead narrowed in all three subjects. School trends varied: Grant gained 4 points in math and 6 in science, while Will Rogers gained 10 in science; Santa Monica Alternative (K-8) fell 5 points in both math and science. SchoolDigger’s statewide percentile ranking also dropped for Santa Monica Alternative, from the 88th to the 79th percentile. Grant and Will Rogers have similar student–teacher ratios, 20.3 and 19.3, yet their grade 4 results differ sharply. Their reported free/reduced lunch eligible shares were 25% and 44%, respectively, in 2024–25; these are contextual observations, not explanations of performance. Olympic’s 2025–26 proficiency results are suppressed, and all-grades comparisons should be read with schools’ different grade spans in mind.