The latest test score results for Fremont indicate that the Mission San Jose area schools continue to outperform the rest of the Fremont Unified School District.  Although this has rung true for quite some time with Fremont schools (and is reflected in price premiums for Mission homes), the internet provides us with more transparency on this.  For example, GreatSchools.net obtains state test scores for each grade, in each subject (e.g., math, English) and then calculates a rating from 1 to 10 for each public school in the state.  An overall GreatSchools rating of 10 for a school means that the percentage of students that scored at the “proficient” level (or higher) on the test is in the top 10% in the state.  By contrast, a GreatSchools rating of 6 means that the percentage of students that scored “proficient” (or higher) on the test is in the top 50% in the state (but not the top 40%).  Note that “proficient” is defined by the state education department, not GreatSchools.

You can see the full report for Fremont schools here.  Note that you can get more information like parent reviews (and write your own reviews) for each school.  A few highlights worth mentioning are that all high schools (Washington High School, Mission San Jose, Irvington, American High and Kennedy) are essentially the same when it comes to class size (30-33 students).  On the API (the test performance), Mission San Jose comes in well ahead of the pack, about 15% ahead of Irvington.  Irvington comes out ahead of American and Washington High School by about 5%.  American and Washington High School come in 10% higher than Kennedy High School.

Note that this information does not necessarily mean that the highest scoring schools are “better”, as this does not factor in parent feedback, school activities, or teacher quality.  Instead, its simply a quantifiable way of seeing test scores, which is just one way of assessing a school.