Methodology
How this guide is built
What this guide is
This is an independent guide to the public school districts of the San Francisco Peninsula and the neighborhoods they serve. It is built and maintained by Moe Nasser, a licensed real estate agent with Compass in Menlo Park. It is not produced, sponsored, or endorsed by Compass, SchoolDigger, the California Department of Education, CAASPP, MLSListings, or any school district. Those are the sources the data comes from, not partners in the guide.
Where the numbers come from
District and school rankings, star ratings, and percentiles come from SchoolDigger, which also provides school-level student-teacher ratios and per-pupil spending. Enrollment comes from the California Department of Education, and test scores in English, math, and science come from CAASPP, the state's annual assessment, shown against the California statewide average for all grades. The district-level student-teacher ratios in the comparison tool come from the National Center for Education Statistics. Home prices are the median single-family sale price from MLSListings, the regional MLS.
How often it is updated
School data and home prices update on different schedules, so this guide refreshes them separately. School test results and ratings change once a year. California releases them each fall, and this guide is updated by hand to match. It currently reflects the 2025-26 results released in October 2026. Home prices move faster, so they are refreshed from the MLS every month, using the median single-family sale over the last twelve completed months, with a longer window in the few areas where there are too few sales for twelve months to be meaningful. Every figure is checked by hand against its original source rather than pulled in automatically. That hand verification is the point of the guide.
How school assignment works
Public school assignment is by parcel address, not by city or ZIP code. Boundaries can split a single street, and one city can fall across several districts. Magnet and language immersion programs are filled by application and lottery, not by where you live. Always confirm the exact school assigned to a specific address with the district before you make an offer.
Why high school districts are named but not ranked
A high school district's rating blends schools spread across many miles, most of which a given home will never attend. That makes a district-level high school rank misleading. The number that matters is the rank of the specific high school a home is assigned to, and that is what the guide shows. High school districts are named for context but are not given a district rank.
What the ratings do and do not tell you
Rankings and ratings mostly summarize test performance, and test performance reflects the community a school serves as much as the school itself. They do not capture teaching, culture, programs, or whether a school fits a particular child. Treat them as a starting point, not a verdict, and visit the schools you are seriously considering.
Beyond the numbers
Alongside the data, each city has a section on school culture, the part the ratings miss. These sections draw on a wide read of public information: district materials and board decisions, local forums and parent groups, family reviews, and community discussion about what each school is actually like day to day. This part of the guide is qualitative by nature. It reflects research and community perspective, not verified fact, and it shifts over time as schools and communities do. It is meant to add context a test score cannot, and it is no substitute for visiting a school and talking with its families yourself.
Accuracy and limits
The information here is gathered from public sources and offered for general guidance. It can contain errors, and the underlying figures change over time. Nothing here is a guarantee of a school assignment, a test score, or a home value. Before you act on anything in this guide, confirm it with the relevant district and your own advisors.