Balboa High: Most kids here clear the bar, year after year. The question is what happens after that.
Balboa posts 56% meeting the standard, and 20.7% going well past it. Most kids here keep up. Fewer get pushed further. Ask the school what it does for a child who already finds the work easy.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Grad rate | College readiness | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 55 | 21% | 56% | 92.9% | 70.8% | 25.9% | 4.8% |
| CA average · High School | 44 | 16% | 36% | 87.6% | 35.4% | 30.2% | 3.6% |
Balboa High scores 55 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 74th percentile of 2,160 California high schools (CDE CAASPP 2025).
Measures test performance, attendance, and climate — not arts, community, or your kid. How we score →
🌱 Building Momentum — This label means the data doesn't clearly sort the school one way or the other — ask what the school is proud of, and what it's working on.
Most rating sites would stop at “56% proficient” and call it done. Balboa deserves a closer read. The school sits in San Francisco, where three in five students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
Balboa's low-income kids hit 63.0% proficiency in ELA — a number the same group reaches at 38.2% statewide. If you're trying to read past zip-code-driven test scores, that's the signal worth weighing.
The seven-year arc
Has held the 74th-percentile line every tested year since 2019.
The pandemic drop is behind this school: 56% of students meet the standard today, above the 51% who did in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 63% | 68% | 60% | 70% | 66% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 39% | 47% | 43% | 44% | 46% |
The story this school is actually telling
Of 100 students here: 56 are proficient by 11th grade → 93 graduate → 71 pass an AP exam. The gaps between those bars are the questions to ask.
Balboa's most underrated number
63.0% of low-income students met the ELA standard — versus 38.2% for the same group statewide. That's the strongest kind of signal a school can post: it holds across income lines.
The 7 things our score weighs
Ask how the school challenges kids who clear the standard early. The gap between meeting and exceeding is where pacing shows.
- Ask whether extra support — tutoring, counseling, small groups — reaches kids across income lines, not just the students already ahead.
- Ask whether the tour can step into a working classroom — watch how the teacher handles a student who's stuck.
- Ask to tour while school's in session, and notice how hallways and transitions feel — culture shows up between classes, not just in them.
- Ask how the school communicates with families when a child starts to struggle.
- Ask what a typical day looks like for a new student in the first few weeks.
How every group of students does here
At Balboa High in San Francisco, 63.0% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 38.8% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Balboa High outperforms its district average for low-income students by 24.2 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (44.8% Math proficient); Asian students (73.0% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 61.7 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 148 students tested.
5 of 15 student groups here are too small to report — a privacy protection, not a gap.
Showing up, and staying in class
Where the path goes
The path below follows attendance boundaries — scores shown for each next step.
Feeder patterns derived from NCES attendance boundary data. Boundaries are approximate and may have changed — verify with your school district for current assignments.
The people teaching here
Pay is set by the district, not the school.
What gets spent here
The district's current expense of education per student, from CDE's annual SACS filing — the freshest district spending figure the state publishes.
District-level, from the district's own SACS general-ledger filing — school-by-school breakdowns aren't published by the state.
Source: NCES F-33 · Full district breakdown →
The neighborhood it serves
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates (2024) · ZIP-level
On the state's science test (CAST), 41% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Balboa High a good high school?
What are Balboa High's CAASPP test scores?
How does Balboa High rank in California?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Balboa High?
How does Balboa High compare to other schools in San Francisco?
How does Balboa High serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby High Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 58
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 69
Nearby Middle Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 55
Private alternatives nearby
Private schools within ~10 miles. These schools do not participate in state testing and cannot be scored or ranked.
Every number on this page
Score factors, grade-level breakdowns, subgroup proficiency, and peer comparisons.
| ELA | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 245 | 23% | 42% | 19% | 16% | 66% | +19 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 247 | 18% | 28% | 19% | 35% | 46% | +22 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 242 | 10% | 31% | 52% | 8% |
CAST is tested in grades 5, 8, and once in high school — not annually. Not part of the Scope Score.
| Subgroup · ELA | Tested | MET+ | vs district | vs CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 148 | 63.0% | +24 | +25 |
| Asian | 126 | 73.0% | +3 | −1 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 69 | 47.8% | +22 | +9 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balboa High ← | — | 55 | 20.7% | 55.7% | — | 4.8% |
| Asawa (Ruth) SF Sch of the Arts, A Public School | 1.7 mi | 73 | 43.7% | 73.1% | — | 2.4% |
| Burton (Phillip and Sala) Academic High | 1.9 mi | 51 | 17.1% | 41.4% | — | 5.6% |
| Academy (The)- SF @McAteer | 1.7 mi | 50 | 20.4% | 47.7% | — | 2.4% |
| California average | — | 44 | 15.8% | 35.7% | — | 3.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 60 | 80 | #414 | 24.2% | 50.9% | 19.5% | 3.9% | — |
| 2022 | 61 | 86 | #289 | 27.4% | 57.3% | 24.8% | 1.7% | — |
| 2023 | 57 | 80 | #426 | 21.1% | 51.4% | 25.9% | 2.4% | — |
| 2024 | 58 | 83 | #366 | 23.5% | 56.6% | 25.5% | 3.0% | — |
| 2025 | 55 | 74 | #553 | 20.7% | 55.7% | 25.9% | 4.8% | — |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 21.9% | 27.5% | +5.6pp |
| Male | 17.0% | 23.9% | +6.9pp |
| Asian | 3.6% | 7.9% | +4.3pp |
| Black/African American | 42.2% | 65.8% | +23.6pp |
| Filipino | 10.0% | 27.8% | +17.8pp |
| White | 12.6% | 24.7% | +12.1pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 31.2% | 37.8% | +6.6pp |
| Pacific Islander | 47.5% | 47.1% | -0.4pp |
| Two or More Races | 40.7% | 39.2% | -1.5pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 35.3% | 39.9% | +4.6pp |
| English Learners | 27.8% | 35.4% | +7.6pp |
| Homeless | 50.0% | 36.2% | -13.8pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 19.5% | 27.2% | +7.7pp |
| All Students | 19.1% | 25.5% | +6.4pp |
| Foster Youth | — | 60.0% | — |
SchoolScope scores and verdicts are our interpretation of public California Department of Education data — independent analysis, not an official rating. How we analyze · Request a correction