Summary:
ZIP code 95126 has two middle schools serving grades 5–8: Herbert Hoover Middle serves grades 6–8 and enrolled 910 students, while ACE Inspire Academy serves grades 5–8 and enrolled 205 in 2024–2025. Both schools reported all-grade results in English language arts (ELA), mathematics and science that year. The key area-wide finding is that both schools scored below state results in all three subjects.
Hoover stands out at the top of this two-school comparison, leading ACE Inspire by 17 percentage points in ELA, 4 in mathematics and 15 in science. Hoover’s results were 35% in ELA, 24% in mathematics and 27% in science; ACE’s were 18%, 20% and 12%, respectively. Both were below state results, but Hoover was closer: its shortfalls were 14 points in ELA, 14 in mathematics and 6 in science, compared with ACE’s 31, 17 and 21 points. These all-grade comparisons are not perfectly grade-matched because ACE also serves grade 5.
Hoover’s more recent results show a mixed pattern: from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, ELA fell by 4 points to 31%, mathematics was nearly unchanged at 24%, and science rose by 4 points to 31%. Science remained closest to the state, 5 points behind, while the average gap across the three subjects widened by 2 points. SchoolDigger lists Hoover at 2 stars and the 31st percentile for 2025–2026, and ACE at 1 star and the 18th percentile for 2024–2025; those ratings are from different years. Context also differs: in 2024–2025, free/reduced lunch eligible students were 63% at Hoover and 87% at ACE, and student-teacher ratios were 18.5 and 25, respectively. Hoover’s 2025–2026 chronic absenteeism was 30%, above San Jose Unified at 22% and the state at 18%.
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