Which San Jose Unified or East Side Union high schools zones top API as of 2026

California retired the Academic Performance Index in 2013. If you have seen references to API scores while searching for information about San Jose Unified or East Side Union high school attendance zones, those numbers are more than a decade old and no longer reflect how any school in either district is performing today.

The API Was Retired in 2013

The API was a single numeric score, on a scale of 200 to 1000, calculated from standardized test results. California suspended it after the state transitioned away from the STAR testing program. It has not been reinstated. Any website still displaying API scores for San Jose schools is showing outdated information.

What California Uses Instead

The California School Dashboard replaced the API starting in 2017. The Dashboard uses a color-coded system across multiple indicators: English Language Arts performance, Math performance, graduation rates, suspension rates, and college and career readiness. Each indicator is rated on a five-level scale from Red to Blue. No single number summarizes a school the way the API did, which means comparing schools requires looking at multiple measures simultaneously.

The Smarter Balanced Assessment results, which feed into the Dashboard, are also publicly reported by the California Department of Education. For the 2025 to 2026 school year, the most recent full-year data available as of September 2026 covers the 2024 to 2025 testing cycle. You can search by school name or district at the CDE's DataQuest portal at data1.cde.ca.gov.

Where to Find Current Data

Three sources give you the most complete picture. The California School Dashboard at caschooldashboard.org is the official state source. The California Department of Education's DataQuest tool provides raw test score percentages by grade and subject. Third-party aggregator sites compile and display this data in formats that are easier to scan, though their methodologies vary and their ratings reflect their own weighting choices rather than any official ranking.

For example, SchoolDigger's San Jose Unified school listings pull from state test score data and display it alongside enrollment and demographic information. These tools are useful for getting a quick overview, but the underlying data they use comes from the same CDE sources you can access directly.

2. Understanding San Jose Unified High School Attendance Zones

San Jose Unified School District covers a large swath of central and southern San Jose. The district serves roughly 24,000 students across its schools, and its high school attendance zones cover some of the most established residential neighborhoods in the city, including Willow Glen, Almaden Valley, Cambrian, and Downtown San Jose.

Which High Schools Are in SJUSD

San Jose Unified operates several comprehensive high schools. Abraham Lincoln High School serves portions of central San Jose near the Willow Glen and Rose Garden areas. Willow Glen High School draws from the Willow Glen neighborhood itself, where homes tend to be craftsman bungalows and Victorians built in the 1920s through 1950s on lots between 5,000 and 7,500 square feet, with median prices running roughly in the $1.3 million to $1.6 million range as of September 2026.

Leland High School covers portions of the Almaden Valley and Blossom Valley areas in southern San Jose. Homes in the Almaden Valley zone are predominantly single-family residences built between the 1970s and early 1990s, many on quarter-acre to half-acre lots, with median prices generally ranging from $1.4 million to $1.9 million depending on the specific street and lot size. Pioneer High School and Branham High School serve the Cambrian and Blossom Valley portions of the district, where you find tract homes from the 1960s and 1970s, typically priced between $1.1 million and $1.5 million.

Downtown San Jose and the surrounding urban core neighborhoods fall under the attendance zone for Downtown College Preparatory and other specialized programs within SJUSD. The housing stock in those areas skews toward condos, townhomes, and smaller single-family lots, with prices ranging from the mid-$600,000s for condos to over $1 million for detached homes.

How Attendance Boundaries Work

Attendance boundaries in SJUSD are set by the district and can be updated. A street that falls inside one high school's zone can be two blocks from a street in a different zone. The official boundary maps are published on the SJUSD website at sjusd.org, and you can enter a specific address to confirm which school serves that property. Never assume based on a neighborhood name alone, because boundaries do not always follow neighborhood lines.

Housing Stock and Price Ranges by Zone

The physical character of homes varies considerably across SJUSD zones. Willow Glen's zone features tree-lined streets, walkable blocks near Lincoln Avenue's shops and restaurants, and older homes with original hardwood floors and detached garages. The Almaden Valley zone offers newer construction, cul-de-sac streets, proximity to Almaden Quicksilver County Park, and more square footage per dollar than closer-in neighborhoods. Blossom Valley and Cambrian zones sit between these two in terms of lot size and price, with good freeway access to Highway 85 and Highway 87.

3. Understanding East Side Union High School District Attendance Zones

East Side Union High School District is one of the largest high school districts in California, serving the eastern and northeastern portions of San Jose. It enrolls approximately 24,000 to 25,000 students across its comprehensive high schools, and its attendance zones cover neighborhoods from Berryessa and Alum Rock in the north to Evergreen and Silver Creek in the south.

Which High Schools Are in ESUHSD

ESUHSD operates seven comprehensive high schools. Evergreen Valley High School serves much of the Evergreen neighborhood in the foothills of eastern San Jose. Silver Creek High School covers the Silver Creek and parts of the Evergreen area as well. Independence High School and Piedmont Hills High School serve the Berryessa and North San Jose corridors. Mt. Pleasant High School and James Lick High School cover the Alum Rock and East San Jose areas. Andrew Hill High School draws from neighborhoods in the southeastern portion of the district.

Neighborhood Contexts Across the District

The Evergreen zone sits at elevations ranging from about 400 to 800 feet, offering hillside views and newer planned-community homes built primarily from the late 1980s through the 2000s. Lot sizes run from 4,500 to 8,000 square feet for most production homes, with larger custom lots on upper streets. Median home prices in the Evergreen attendance zone were running roughly $1.3 million to $1.6 million as of September 2026. Commute times to downtown San Jose run about 25 to 35 minutes by car via Highway 101 or Capitol Expressway.

The Berryessa zone, served by Piedmont Hills and Independence high schools, includes a mix of 1960s and 1970s ranch-style homes and newer infill construction near the Berryessa BART station, which opened in 2020. That station has made this corridor more attractive to commuters heading to the East Bay, with rides to Fremont running roughly 20 minutes. Home prices in the Berryessa zone generally range from the low $900,000s to about $1.3 million for detached single-family homes.

The Alum Rock corridor, served by James Lick and Mt. Pleasant high schools, has older housing stock, primarily from the 1940s through 1960s, with smaller lot sizes averaging 4,000 to 6,000 square feet. Entry-level detached homes in this zone were priced from the mid-$700,000s to just over $1 million as of September 2026, making it one of the more accessible price points for buyers entering the San Jose market.

How to Verify Which Zone a Property Falls In

ESUHSD publishes its attendance boundary maps at esuhsd.org. You can also call the district's enrollment office directly to confirm a specific address. This step is worth doing before you write an offer, because boundaries are reviewed periodically and an online map from two years ago may not reflect a recent adjustment. Your real estate agent can also help you track down this confirmation during the due diligence period.

4. How Schools Are Organized in the Area

The area is served by San Jose Unified and East Side Union school districts. Boundaries and school assignments for a specific address can be confirmed directly with the applicable district office.

Official California Dashboard

At caschooldashboard.org, you can search by school name and see color ratings for each indicator. A school rated Blue in ELA and Green in Math is performing differently from one rated Green in ELA and Blue in Math, even though a simple ranking might place them in the same tier. The Dashboard also breaks out performance by student group, which gives you a fuller picture of how a school serves students with different backgrounds and needs.

Third-Party Aggregator Sites

Some commercial websites compile district information and layer on their own methodologies. These are independent, third party products, and it is worth noting that two such sites can present the same school differently because they use different weighting formulas for the factors they choose to include.

What the Data Does and Does Not Tell You

Families researching a home often look into more than any single data point can capture, such as class sizes in a specific program, the availability of AP or IB courses, the quality of arts or athletics programs, or how a particular student's learning style will mesh with a school's culture. Buyers may want to contact a school or district directly for this kind of detail.

Visiting the school, attending an open house or information night, and speaking with the principal's office gives you qualitative information that no dataset captures. Both SJUSD and ESUHSD publish school profiles on their district websites that include course offerings, extracurricular programs, and enrollment numbers.

5. Connecting School Zone Research to Your Home Search in San Jose

School attendance zones have a measurable effect on home prices in San Jose, and understanding that relationship helps you make a more informed offer. Buyers who focus on a specific attendance zone without considering adjacent zones sometimes pay a premium for a boundary designation without realizing that a home two streets over offers similar proximity to the same school at a lower price point, or falls in a different zone with characteristics they might also value.

How Attendance Zones Affect Price

In the San Jose market as of September 2026, homes in the Leland High School attendance zone within SJUSD have historically commanded a price premium relative to the surrounding Almaden Valley area broadly, reflecting buyer demand concentrated within that boundary. A similar dynamic plays out in the Evergreen Valley High zone within ESUHSD, where the combination of newer housing stock and the hillside setting has supported prices above the broader East San Jose average.

This means that if school zone is a priority for your household, you need to factor the zone premium into your budget analysis. A home listed at $1.45 million in one zone may be functionally comparable in size and condition to a home listed at $1.3 million in an adjacent zone. Whether that difference is worth it depends entirely on your household's priorities, which is a personal decision no data source can make for you.

Confirming Zone Boundaries Before Making an Offer

Zone confirmation is a step that belongs in your pre-offer checklist, not your post-closing to-do list. Both SJUSD and ESUHSD have address lookup tools on their websites. For properties near a boundary line, call the district enrollment office directly and ask for written confirmation. Boundaries can shift between school years, and a property that was in one zone in 2024 may have been reassigned by September 2026.

If you are relocating to San Jose from outside the Bay Area, pairing this research with a broader understanding of each neighborhood's physical character, commute options, and price range will give you a more complete picture than school data alone. For buyers focused on the Evergreen area, the commute context is worth understanding separately. You can read more about commute options from Evergreen San Jose to downtown and Silicon Valley tech campuses to get a fuller sense of what daily life looks like in that part of the city.

For buyers weighing neighborhoods more broadly, understanding the physical character of each part of San Jose is just as important as school zone data. The San Jose real estate market guide covering prices, neighborhoods, and timing covers the broader landscape if you are still narrowing down which part of the city fits your situation.