San Ramon Schools, District by District
Every home here is in one district, and the schools are uniformly strong. What actually differs is not what people think.
San Ramon is the easy one. Every home in the city is in the same district, and there is no weak school in it. The ratings run from 8 to 10 and the test scores are well above the state everywhere.
So the useful question here is not which schools are good. It is what actually differs between them, and the honest answer is not the one most people expect.
Published August 25, 2026
Your elementary school tells you your high school
In some towns near here the elementary you are assigned to says almost nothing about where your kid ends up for high school, because the zones split. San Ramon is not like that.
Of the twelve elementary schools serving San Ramon, exactly one sends any children to more than one high school, and that is a small corner of Golden View. No middle school splits at all. The chains are clean.
Dougherty Valley
Coyote Creek and Quail Run → Gale Ranch Middle → Dougherty Valley High
Dougherty Valley
Hidden Hills, Live Oak and part of Bella Vista → Windemere Ranch Middle → Dougherty Valley High
West and central
Twin Creeks, most of Bollinger Canyon and part of Montevideo → Iron Horse Middle → California High
West and central
Most of Walt Disney, Neil Armstrong, Country Club and part of Montevideo → Pine Valley Middle → California High
Two whole systems, really. An older west and central side that feeds California High, and Dougherty Valley in the east with its own elementaries, its own two middle schools and its own high school.
What people believe about Dougherty Valley
The usual story is that Dougherty Valley is the newer, more crowded, higher performing half of San Ramon. Having gone through the numbers, that is wrong in three different ways.
It is not crowded. It is emptying.
Dougherty Valley elementary schools have lost between a third and two thirds of the children they used to have. Live Oak peaked at 1,133 students in 2013 and now has 438. Hidden Hills is down 46%. Across the whole Dougherty Valley cluster enrollment is off about 19%, and 8% of that came in the last two years alone.
Meanwhile the only two schools in San Ramon at their highest enrollment ever are Twin Creeks and California High, both on the west side. No school in the city is over capacity. Bella Vista, the newest, was built for about 830 children and has 499.
Its test scores are higher, but not for the reason people assume.
Dougherty Valley does score higher overall. But the two halves of the city enrol different families, and comparing similar children to similar children the advantage mostly vanishes. The overall number reflects who lives there more than it reflects the teaching.
The rating sites reach the same conclusion from a different direction. Averaged out, west San Ramon schools rate 9.78 and Dougherty Valley 9.22. That is the opposite order to the raw scores, because those ratings account for how much children improve rather than just where they end up.
The high schools are where it is real.
This one holds up. Dougherty Valley High beats California High in every group of students, in both subjects, two years running. In maths last year it was seventeen points ahead overall.
Three things to hold alongside that. High school testing only covers eleventh graders. Dougherty Valley may put more students into advanced maths, which would flatter the comparison. And families who care a lot about school results may have chosen to move there in the first place. Both schools rate 10 out of 10. The gap is also closing quickly, with California High up nearly eight points in English last year while Dougherty Valley slipped.
Dougherty Valley schools
| School | Grades | Rating | English | Math |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coyote Creek Elementary8700 N Gale Ridge Rd | K-5 | 10/10 | 86.8% | 85.9% |
| Hidden Hills Elementary12995 Harcourt WayDown about 46% from its peak enrollment in 2011-12. | K-5 | 9/10 | 76% | 79.3% |
| Live Oak Elementary5151 Sherwood WayThe emptiest school in the city relative to its own past. It peaked at 1,133 students in 2013-14 and now has 438. | K-5 | 9/10 | 72% | 78% |
| Quail Run Elementary4000 Goldenbay Ave | K-5 | 8/10 | 67.3% | 71.2% |
| Bella Vista Elementary1050 Trumpet Vine LnThe newest school in San Ramon, opened 2016. Built for about 830 kids and currently has 499. | K-5 | 8/10 | 73.7% | 76.7% |
| Gale Ranch Middle School6400 Main Branch Rd | 6-8 | 10/10 | 84.7% | 79.3% |
| Windemere Ranch Middle School11611 E Branch Pkwy | 6-8 | 9/10 | 85.4% | 82.3% |
| Dougherty Valley High School10550 Albion RdOpened in 2007. The one place in San Ramon where the two halves of the city genuinely differ on results. | 9-12 | 10/10 | 84.4% | 79% |
West and central San Ramon schools
| School | Grades | Rating | English | Math |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bollinger Canyon Elementary2300 Talavera DrUp nearly eight points in English last year, one of the biggest gains in the city. | K-5 | 10/10 | 86.3% | 84.6% |
| Neil A. Armstrong Elementary2849 Calais Dr | K-5 | 10/10 | 83.7% | 84.8% |
| Golden View Elementary5025 Canyon Crest DrHas a 94582 zip so it gets counted as Dougherty Valley, but it predates the whole development. Most of it feeds Iron Horse and California High; a corner goes to Diablo Vista Middle in Danville and on to Monte Vista. | K-5 | 10/10 | 82.8% | 82.4% |
| Montevideo Elementary13000 Broadmoor Dr | K-5 | 9/10 | 74.5% | 74.6% |
| Twin Creeks Elementary2785 Marsh DrOne of only two schools in San Ramon at its highest enrollment ever. Up about 19% since 2016. | K-5 | 10/10 | 72.5% | 76% |
| Country Club Elementary7534 Blue Fox Way | K-5 | 9/10 | 72.5% | 70.8% |
| Walt Disney Elementary3250 Pine Valley Rd | K-5 | 10/10 | 72% | 70% |
| Iron Horse Middle School12601 Alcosta Blvd | 6-8 | 10/10 | 81.9% | 75.9% |
| Pine Valley Middle School3000 Pine Valley Rd | 6-8 | 10/10 | 83% | 73% |
| California High School9870 Broadmoor DrThe other school at its highest enrollment ever. Gained nearly eight points in English last year, one of the biggest jumps in the city. | 9-12 | 10/10 | 74.9% | 61.7% |
Across the district, 79.8% of students met the state English standard and 74.4% met the maths one in 2024-25. Every San Ramon school is well above the California average. High school figures are eleventh graders only.
The district is shrinking
San Ramon Valley Unified peaked at 32,504 students in 2017-18 and now has 28,615. That is a fall of about 11.96%, and it has gone down eight years in a row.
Demographers told the board in March 2026 to expect roughly another 16% drop over the next decade, and that forecast already counts about 5,000 planned new homes.
This matters for a practical reason. Falling rolls put pressure on budgets, and the district has already been through it. About 200 jobs went in early 2025, including counsellors and social workers, and the county downgraded its financial rating before a state payment last summer put some of that back. The district says its own savings plan runs out after 2027 and the gap reopens after that.
Two things worth knowing before you apply anywhere
- A transfer to another school in the district does not follow your child into middle or high school. They go back to their home school at each step.
- Popular schools run a kindergarten lottery, and if you don't get in your child is sent to the nearest school with space. Families sometimes don't find out which school that is until the week before term starts.
- So district enrollment is falling and your own school can still be full. Both are true.
If the district school isn't right
San Ramon has no charter schools, and the district has never approved one. Private options nearby are limited too.
Alternatives to your public school district covers what exists, what it costs where that is published, and who can actually get in.
Check your actual address
The chains here are clean, but check anyway if you are near a boundary, and especially if you are near the Danville line.
- San Ramon Valley Unified school locator. Enter your street address for all three schools. (925) 552-5500.
One naming trap. San Ramon Valley High School is in Danville, not San Ramon. So are Monte Vista High, Charlotte Wood, Los Cerros and Diablo Vista Middle. San Ramon's own high schools are California High and Dougherty Valley High.
About this page
The numbers come from the district, the state test results, and federal enrollment data. I last checked them on August 25, 2026.
Everything here is from a public source — school and district websites and their own boundary tools, the state test results, and federal enrollment data. None of it is private or insider information, and none of it is my own estimate.
Think something here is wrong? Please tell me at report@mountdiablofamilies.com and I will fix it. I would far rather hear about it than leave another parent working off a bad number.
I am not ranking these schools. Which one is right depends on your kid.
This is an independent guide. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or speaking for any school district. Where a district’s logo appears, it is there to identify the district the page is about.