NCES CCD 2024-25 12 schools CA

Best-Resourced Schools in South San Francisco, CA

Compiled from official source data by .

12 public K-12 schools in South San Francisco from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.

PlainSchools home → About this data
12
Schools
6,475
Students
31.3/100
Avg Resource Index
19.4:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Lean reported-resource profile

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, South San Francisco has more public-school enrollment than 66% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. South San Francisco's average Resource Investment Index falls in the lower portion of the 4,487-city comparison set. The index is a resource snapshot, not an academic grade: it reflects the federal staffing, counselor, gifted-program, and attendance fields available for local campuses. The most useful next step is to open the individual schools below and identify which component is pulling each score down, because the same city average can hide very different campus-level constraints.

The school portfolio is elementary-weighted

6 of South San Francisco's 12 listed schools are elementary campuses. That composition means citywide enrollment and staffing averages are influenced more by early-grade operating patterns than by the city's 3 middle and 3 high-school records. Families comparing later grades should rely on those individual rows rather than the all-school mean.

Campus spread matters more than the city mean

The 31-point gap between South San Francisco High and Spruce Elementary shows the range hidden by South San Francisco's average Resource Investment Index. The city figure is useful for national placement, but families ultimately choose among campuses with different grade spans, enrollment, district affiliations, and reported support fields. Start with schools serving the relevant grade level, then compare the index components rather than assuming the city average describes any one classroom.

City enrollment
Top 34%
School count
Top 31%
Resource Index average
15th percentile
Teacher staffing
18th percentile

South San Francisco High accounts for 19.1% of all South San Francisco public-school enrollment

That concentration means South San Francisco-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: High. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

South San Francisco school enrollment varies 9.5× across entities

South San Francisco school enrollment ranges from 130 students (lowest) to 1,239 students (highest), a spread of 1,109 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous school portfolio for a city this size. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

South San Francisco operates one school district — a single-district system

South San Francisco's listed schools share one district boundary, budget authority, and reporting chain. That makes citywide and districtwide governance easier to compare, but it does not make individual campuses uniform: grade configuration, staffing, programs, and student need can still vary materially within the same school district.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

South San Francisco student-teacher ratio is 19.4:1 — high (typically associated with larger urban scale or staffing constraints that have widened the headcount gap)

student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. South San Francisco High 46
2. Westborough Middle 40
3. El Camino High 38
4. Buri Buri Elementary 38
5. Baden High (Continuation) 38
6. Alta Loma Middle 36
7. Parkway Heights Middle 30
8. Sunshine Gardens Elementary 27
9. Ponderosa Elementary 26
10. Martin Elementary 22
11. Los Cerritos Elementary 19
12. Spruce Elementary 15

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in South San Francisco

Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.

  1. 1 Buri Buri Elementary 69.2/100
  2. 2 Ponderosa Elementary 67.4/100
  3. 3 Alta Loma Middle 64.8/100
  4. 4 El Camino High 62.1/100
  5. 5 Sunshine Gardens Elementary 58.9/100

What do families ask about schools in South San Francisco?

Which South San Francisco school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

South San Francisco High has the highest Resource Investment Index among the South San Francisco schools in this federal-data comparison at 46/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in South San Francisco, CA? ▼

South San Francisco has 12 public schools with a total enrollment of 6,475 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 19.4:1.

Other Cities in California

Los Angeles
574 schools
San Diego
284 schools
San Jose
234 schools
Sacramento
197 schools
Fresno
180 schools
Bakersfield
146 schools

Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in California →

Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.