School Ranking in Every Marin District

If there is one thing California as a state tends to struggle with it would be the public school system. More often than not the  overall comparisons with other states are unfavorable to California. The results support the impression that California’s relative standing in the nation has declined over the last three decades. The combination of a student population with relatively great needs, relatively low funding levels, and relatively inadequate resources may have contributed to California’s comparatively low levels of student academic achievement.

Luckily, as natives of Marin we have the fortuitous advantage of being the exception to the rule here. The public schools of the districts in Marin are some of the top performing schools in the nation. The majority of them surpass the national testing average. The lists below depict the Californian API numbers of all the public schools in Marin. Separated by elementary, middle, high school and their districts you can see which are the top ranked schools.

A school's score or placement on the API is designed to be an indicator of a school's performance level and is calculated annually by the California Department of Education, primarily based on CST and CAHSEE tests. The API Statewide Rank score ranks a school with all schools in California based on API score, while the API Similar Schools score ranks a school with 100 other schools in the state with similar demographic profiles (including parent education level, poverty level, student mobility, student ethnicity).

Each year, the California Department of Education selects the highest achieving public schools in the state as Distinguished Schools. Schools may apply for this award only every four years. Here are the Marin schools on the list over the last six years (2007-2012):

Fairfax/San Anselmo: White Hill Middle
Kentfield: Anthony G. Bacich Elementary
Larkspur-Corte Madera: Henry C. Hall Middle
Mill Valley: Old Mill Elementary
Novato: Lu Sutton Elementary, Rancho Elementary, San ramon Elementary, Sinaloa Middle
Ross: Ross Elementary
San Rafael (Dixie School District): Miller Creek Middle
San Rafael (San Rafael District): Sun Valley Elementary
Sausalito: Willow Creek Academy, Bayside Elementary
Tiburon: Bel Aire Elementary, Reed Elementary, Del Mar Middle
West Marin: West Marin-Inverness Elementary

 Take a look below to learn about the true disparity between different public schools in Marin. The API numbers don’t lie, but there are definitely some unexpected statistics. Academic Performance Index (API) score ranges from a low of 200 to a high of 1000. Who knew that Upper Brookside would rank better than the prestigious Ross school? Scroll to the bottom to see Elementary, Middle, and High schools of Marin ranked in Order!

Rank – School – API #

Elementary Schools

1. Bel Air               968

2. Rancho             958

3. Brookside Upper950

4. Dixie                 946

5. Tam Valley         946

6. Bacich               944

7. Ross                  943

8. Brookside         943    

9. Neil Cummins         917

Middle Schools

1. Del Mar            967

2. Kent                  960

3. Mill Valley         958

4. White Hill         932             

5. Hall                   928

6. Miller Creek         928

7. Davidson          873

8. Sinaloa              858

High Schools

1. Redwood          900

2. Tam                  866

3. Drake                852

4. Novato High         820

5. San Marin High   802

6. Terra Linda          798

7. San Rafael High   773