California Schools

A friend of mine from another country once quipped (not altogether unkindly) that in American business, the most important thing is not action, but documentation. I sometimes wonder if the same can't be said for American education. How well we're doing at educating our kids is open to debate, but we sure are doing a fine job of documenting how well we think we're educating our kids.

Of course, the good news about this from the point of view of a home buyer is that -- to some extent at least -- knowledge is power. Though numbers don't tell the whole story, they certainly give you a starting feel for what neighborhoods you'll want to look into. With this in mind, we've organized a variety of California educational resources here. It's organized by county on our Sacramento Schools, but the following are several links to general, California-wide resources:

General Information

General information about schools in California -- including California law, school data, and healthy kids programs -- is available at the web site of the California Department of Education.

School Rankings and Standardized Tests

One widely used measure of ranking school performance in California is the API, or Academic Performance Index. We have reports for each of our local counties available by clicking on the county from our Sacramento Area Schools page, but to read more about the law and methodology behind these scores, or to read the "Parent's Guide" to the scores, visit the California API Policy and Evaluation Division.

To find out more about the standardized tests on which such reports are based, visit California Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR). Unlike the API site, this site contains more detailed information about the tests themselves, including reading lists and the like.

Finally, since September of 2000, every public school in California has been required to file a School Accountability Report Card, designed to have the schools answer important questions about how they are performing.

Colleges and Community Colleges

For all colleges in California, a good starting place on the web is CaliforniaColleges.edu. For more information about the several campuses of our State University College System, see CSUMentor. Those who'll prefer to start with a community college will want to visit the State's Community College web site.