Summary:
ZIP code 93204 has six schools—two elementary, one middle and three high schools—with 2,424 students in all; enrollment ranges from 7 at Reef-Sunset Secondary Community Day to 762 at Avenal High. Among the four schools with reported 2025–26 results, the clearest shared concern is that proficiency is well below California’s in every subject: the unweighted school averages are 20% in English, 9% in math and 9% in science, respectively 29, 29 and 27 percentage points below state results of 49%, 38% and 36%.
Avenal High leads reported all-grades English at 35% and science at 14%, ahead of the next-highest school by 16 and 3 percentage points. Avenal Elementary leads math at 12%, just 1 point ahead of Tamarack Elementary at 11%. Tamarack has the lowest English and science results, at 13% and 4%; Avenal High has the lowest math result, at 5%. Completion and attendance tell another part of the story: Avenal High’s graduation rate is 99%, with 0% dropout and 12% chronic absenteeism, while Sunrise Continuation High reports 74% graduation, 26% dropout and 58% chronic absenteeism.
Across these four schools, average results fell from 21% to 20% in English, 11% to 9% in math and 11% to 9% in science between 2024–25 and 2025–26; the gap from the state widened by 1, 3 and 5 points, respectively. School-level changes varied: Tamarack’s math proficiency rose by 5 points, while Avenal High’s fell by 8. SchoolDigger rates Avenal High highest among schools with current ratings, at 1 star and the 24th percentile; Avenal Elementary is at the 3rd percentile, Reef-Sunset Middle at the 4th and Tamarack at the 1st, each with 0 stars. Student-teacher ratios among the four schools are 20.7 to 25.6. In 2024–25, their free/reduced lunch eligible measures were about 95% to 96%; Sunrise instead reports 43% directly certified for free meals that year, and Reef-Sunset Secondary Community Day reports 50% in 2023–24, so these are different measures.
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