Summary:
Zip code 94501 has two middle schools—Lincoln Middle and Will C. Wood Middle—both serving grades 6–8 in Alameda Unified. The schools’ 2025–2026 results are above the state in most subject areas, but they differ substantially from one another. The biggest gap is in science: Lincoln’s proficiency rate is 74%, compared with 32% at Wood, a difference of 43 percentage points.
Lincoln leads in all three subjects, with 82% proficient in ELA, 70% in math, and 74% in science. It is 32 points above the state in ELA and math, and 38 points above in science. Wood is above the state in ELA (56% versus 49%) and math (41% versus 38%), but below it in science (32% versus 36%). Its all-grades math result also masks a grade-level concern: sixth-grade math is 35%, below the state’s 37%, while Wood’s seventh- and eighth-graders are above their state comparisons.
Recent results show science improving while math is losing ground relative to the state: the schools’ average science proficiency rose about 5 points from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, while math fell about 1 point; ELA was nearly unchanged. SchoolDigger rankings also diverged: Lincoln improved from 144th of 2,783 schools to 97th of 2,703, while Wood moved from 698th to 865th. Attendance is another notable difference: chronic absenteeism was 8% at Lincoln and 19% at Wood in 2025–2026. Context measures also differ: in 2024–2025, free/reduced lunch eligible students were 20% at Lincoln and 52% at Wood; student-teacher ratios were 23.5 and 20.9, respectively. These are observations about the schools, not explanations for their results.
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