Palo Alto Unified on the 2025 California School Dashboard
The California School Dashboard reports each school's results as a distance from standard: how many points the average student scored above or below the "met standard" line on the state's English and math tests (grades 3 to 8 and 11). Zero means students on average just met the standard. Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) scored 86.8 points above standard in English language arts and 86.7 points above in math on the 2025 Dashboard, against 8.1 points below and 42.4 points below for California as a whole. Its graduation rate was 97.7%, against 87.8% statewide, and 8.4% of students were chronically absent, against 17.1% statewide.
The table shows the 2025 Dashboard results for every PAUSD school with enough tested students to report. Figures are for all students; the elementary and middle school chronic absence rate is shown where the Dashboard reports it.
| School | Grades | ELA (points vs standard) | Math (points vs standard) | Chronic absence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Herbert Hoover Elementary | K-5 | +117.3 | +126.0 | 6.6% |
| Lucille M. Nixon Elementary | K-5 | +108.3 | +94.0 | 7.5% |
| Ohlone Elementary | K-5 | +91.7 | +98.5 | 7.5% |
| Fairmeadow Elementary | K-5 | +88.8 | +85.1 | 7.0% |
| Juana Briones Elementary | K-5 | +86.6 | +89.9 | 6.4% |
| Duveneck Elementary | K-5 | +76.5 | +71.7 | 9.6% |
| Palo Verde Elementary | K-5 | +74.9 | +77.1 | 9.1% |
| Escondido Elementary | K-5 | +73.6 | +69.3 | 10.6% |
| Walter Hays Elementary | K-5 | +67.0 | +60.1 | 13.5% |
| Addison Elementary | K-5 | +65.6 | +61.4 | 11.6% |
| El Carmelo Elementary | K-5 | +55.9 | +59.9 | 8.5% |
| Barron Park Elementary | K-5 | +32.6 | +34.0 | 18.5% |
| Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle | 6-8 | +100.5 | +107.4 | 5.3% |
| Ellen Fletcher Middle | 6-8 | +92.3 | +87.2 | 8.8% |
| Frank S. Greene Jr. Middle | 6-8 | +75.3 | +68.4 | 6.5% |
| Henry M. Gunn High | 9-12 | +107.3 | +113.7 | n/a |
| Palo Alto High | 9-12 | +71.3 | +73.4 | n/a |
Elementary results rest on 113 to 228 tested students per school, so a single year can swing. The Dashboard's change column shows how much each school moved from 2024: Palo Alto High rose 40.9 points in English and 40.2 in math, while Duveneck fell 14.4 points in math. Look at more than one year before drawing conclusions.
Palo Alto's two comprehensive high schools
Henry M. Gunn High School
Gunn is at 780 Arastradero Road, ZIP 94306. On the 2025 Dashboard its 11th graders scored 107.3 points above standard in English and 113.7 above in math, and its graduation rate was 97.2% across 434 students in the cohort.
Palo Alto High School
Paly is at 50 Embarcadero Road, ZIP 94301, on the same address as Palo Alto Adult Education. Its 2025 results were 71.3 points above standard in English and 73.4 above in math, both up more than 40 points on 2024, with a 98.1% graduation rate across 466 students.
Palo Alto Middle College High School
PAUSD also lists a Middle College program for high school students, with a state directory address of 12345 El Monte Road in Los Altos Hills. Its tested group was too small for the Dashboard to give it a color.
Palo Alto middle schools
Jane Lathrop Stanford (JLS) Middle School
JLS, at 480 East Meadow Drive (94306), had the most tested students of the three middle schools, 967 in math. It scored 100.5 points above standard in English and 107.4 in math, and the district runs its Connections program there, a choice program built on inquiry-based, cross-curricular units.
Ellen Fletcher Middle School
Fletcher is at 655 Arastradero Road (94306), on the same road as Gunn. It scored 92.3 points above standard in English and 87.2 in math in 2025.
Frank S. Greene Jr. Middle School
Greene is at 750 North California Avenue (94303). It scored 75.3 points above standard in English and 68.4 in math, and its chronic absence rate of 6.5% fell 3.6 points from 2024.
Palo Alto elementary schools to look at
PAUSD runs 12 elementary schools with Dashboard results. Two of them have Stanford mailing addresses: Escondido at 890 Escondido Road and Nixon at 1711 Stanford Avenue, both in ZIP 94305.
Herbert Hoover Elementary
Hoover, at 445 East Charleston Road (94306), posted the district's highest elementary scores in 2025: 117.3 points above standard in English and 126.0 in math. It is a choice school with a structured approach that pairs explicit direct instruction with student-centered activities, so admission is not by neighborhood alone.
Ohlone Elementary
Ohlone, at 950 Amarillo Avenue (94303), follows an open-school philosophy and hosts the district's Mandarin Chinese dual immersion program from kindergarten through fifth grade, with an option to continue in middle school. It scored 91.7 above standard in English and 98.5 in math.
Escondido Elementary
Escondido runs the district's Spanish dual immersion program, also from kindergarten through fifth grade. Its math score rose 23.2 points in 2025 to 69.3 above standard.
Fairmeadow and Juana Briones Elementary
Fairmeadow (500 East Meadow Drive) and Juana Briones (4100 Orme Street), both in 94306, each scored more than 85 points above standard in both subjects. Fairmeadow's math score rose 21.3 points from 2024.
Lucille M. Nixon Elementary
Nixon scored 108.3 points above standard in English and 94.0 in math, the second-highest English result among PAUSD elementary schools in 2025.
School choice, immersion and private options in Palo Alto
PAUSD assigns students to a neighborhood school by home address. The district groups elementary schools into clusters that feed the same middle and high schools, and if a neighborhood school is full, a student can be placed at another school in the cluster and waitlisted for the home school. Choice programs (including Hoover, Ohlone, the two immersion programs and JLS Connections) have their own application process; see the district's Choice Programs page for dates.
Our filter of the state school directory found no active charter school with a Palo Alto or Stanford address. Private schools are not on the Dashboard. If you are weighing one, ask the school for its accreditation and its own test or placement data.
How to check which Palo Alto school serves an address
A listing that says "Gunn district" or "Paly district" is not a guarantee. Use these steps for any address:
- Look the address up on PAUSD's school placement map, linked from the district's School Placement and Transfers page.
- Call PAUSD Registration Services at (650) 329-3707 to confirm the neighborhood school and whether it is currently overflowing.
- Read the district's residency rules. California law requires that the student's primary residence be inside the district, and families must re-declare residency each year in the Annual Data Update. Temporary housing during a remodel must also be inside the boundary.
- Check the school on caschooldashboard.org for more than one year of results.
Some PAUSD schools have addresses outside the city: Escondido and Nixon list Stanford, and the Middle College program lists Los Altos Hills. See our main Palo Alto homes guide. Schools affect price: Redfin's median sale price in Palo Alto was $3,608,282 in the three months to September 2026.