Moving to Danville California - what are the best schools in Danville?

Moving to Danville, CA – Top Schools in Danville, CA here’s what you need to know about schools in Danville ca


Are you looking to make a move to the East Bay and you’re not sure where you want to be in the East Bay?  If you have a family with kids, you’re probably researching to make sure this home purchase will fit the needs of not only your family’s lifestyle but also your kiddos educational needs.   With the financial and emotional investment required to buy a home in the East Bay, what could be more important than SCHOOLS??  I’ll break down for you THE absolute BEST SCHOOLS in Danville and give you a simple tip to make sure you get it right.

As a boy mom of 2 kiddos, I’ve been very pleased with the schools in Danville California and the San Ramon Valley Unified School District.  As a realtor, I can say that almost 90-95% of the buyers and sellers I speak to have chosen Danville or are looking to chose Danville for the solid education that Danville’s public school system provides – so we’re going to focus today on the PUBLIC schools. If you want info about private schools, I’ll leave that link in the description below along with links to some of the statistics I’m going to talk to you about.  I want to help you break it down though into facts you can use to decide what is best for your family and children to get the most out of their education (and for the dollars you’re spending through property taxes to pay for their education).  Trust me, I know that not every school is right for every family so it’s a personal decision and above all, I ALWAYS suggest that families consider a school tour directly with the school, as well as, talking to other parents whose kids attend the school being considered either online communication or in person, to see if it's a good fit for your kiddo.

Since December 2020, Danville has seen over 62% Median Home price appreciation since right before the Pandemic started.  So, why are families Moving to Danville, CA?

There is an increasing amount of Bay Area families moving to Danville, CA in the hope of providing a better learning environment for their children.  The top Schools right here in Danville, CA have curriculums that include many of the philosophies, student support and strategies that empower students to become critical thinkers and lifelong learners.  I’ll share some stats with you that may surprise you.

Before we get into why The Top Schools in Danville, CA support these philosophies, let’s review some basic information about the school district that Danville is located within (1):

The town of Danville, California is served by the San Ramon Valley Unified School District (SRVUSD):

  • The district covers an 18 square mile area.
  • In addition to Danville SRVUSD also Includes other communities:  Alamo, Blackhawk, Diablo &     San Ramon.  Additionally, the District also serves a small portion of Walnut Creek and Pleasanton.
  • Within SRVUSD and due to the flock out to the San Ramon Valley area a couple decades ago, Dougherty Valley HS (in San Ramon) opened in 2007 to serve the newest community in East San Ramon namely Windemere and Gale Ranch.
  • There are (36) K-12 schools in the district with more than 32,000 students.

Looking at the Public Schools located within Danville, there are 2 high schools with defined attendance boundaries.  Each high school has assigned middle schools and elementary schools in their feeder patterns.

  • The School District Employs 4,500 people, hiring almost 300 people every year.
  • OF its Annual operating budget of $337M, the district receives $17M from private /parent donations.
  • Also receives $6.9M from local parcel taxes.
  • The state of California allocates funding to the schools with the most quantity of high-needs students in their schools.

Do those numbers ($17M from donations and almost $7M from parcel taxes) sound surprising to you???? Well, SRVUSD has one of the lowest populations of “high needs students” and therefore receives less $$ from the state.  Therefore, The Top 5 Schools in Danville, CA San Ramon Valley Unified School district actually REQUIRES significant additional funding by private and parent donations to meet their annual operating budget.  According to US News Best High Schools Rankings (3), only 4% of the students who attend Danville, CA high schools are considered “economically disadvantaged” or qualify for “free or reduced-price lunches”. This is in sharp contrast with many of the neighboring school districts.  

So, back to why it is important that The Top 5 Schools in Danville, CA support & empower students to become critical thinkers and lifelong learners.

There is growing and overwhelming evidence that the ability to solve problems and collaborate not only provides our children with the skills they need to lead a happy, fulfilling and productive life; in an April 2021 a study called “The Growing Importance of Decision-Making on the Job” (2) by David J. Deming of Harvard University, he states “Highly paid workers are valuable not only because they know how to do, but also because they know what to do.”

Having raised 2 boys who attended public schools in both inner-city Chicago as well as public Schools in Danville, CA, I have met many educators and parents who increasingly, are evaluating a school’s performance beyond graduation rates, test scores and class sizes.  The growing concern of parents is, “Does this school provide an environment that will promote and encourage my student to have a curios mind?”  

Knowing that it’s not all about test scores and that one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to schools, let’s talk about how do we defining this ultimate learning environment or climate?

According to many studies and evidence-based research, the optimal learning environment includes the following 6 focuses for a school (5):

  1. Safety & Wellbeing:  When a student feels safe, they are more likely to accept challenges.
  2. Healthy Risk Taking & Creativity: Overcoming challenges increases confidence & creativity.
  3. Encouraging Leadership & Adaptability: By Providing an opportunity for all students to become leaders.
  4. Collaboration:  Social engagement by referencing prior learning and student interest builds collaborations skills.
  5. Self-directed Learning:  Open ended tasks & research projects enhance critical thinking & problem-solving skills.
  6. Curiosity: Assignments should focus more on asking great questions than memorizing answers.

The San Ramon Valley Unified School District “Strategic Directions” defines BOTH academic excellence and success by similar standards which is consistent with the 6 cornerstones we just talked about.  SRVUSD’s definition of academic excellence and success is (6):

  • Academic Achievement
  • Experience social & emotional well-being
  • Develop curiosity, confidence & independence as learners
  • Appreciate the importance of teams and collaboration
  • Demonstrate empathy & compassion
  • Determine their purpose & understand the importance of service
  • Learn how to set and achieve goals
  • And finally >> to
  • LOVE learning

So now let’s attempt to evaluate The Top Schools in Danville, CA,

Hands down, the BEST way to know if a specific school is right for your family and your children is to visit each school and to talk to other parents to get a feel for the schools philosophies and leadership,

The second way to evaluate a school decision to is to take into account the numbers and the raw data.  To determine the top schools, I looked namely at Rankings and also Performance.

 

For Rankings,

  • SRVUSD was ranked #26 out of 438 SD reviewed in all of California
  • Of the 23 elementary schools in SRVUSD (including traditional, Charter and Alternative schools) 2 of these schools hit the “Best public elementary schools in America list” and that was 
    1. Bollinger Canyon Elementary in SAN RAMON also voted #1 best in CoCo County
    2. Creekside Elementary in DANVILLE (academically scoring a bit higher with Reading proficiency at 82% and Math at 84%) in that order.
  • ALL of the public elementary school in SRVUSD received an A or higher from niche.com
  • Of the 75 Middle schools in Contra Costa County, SRVUSD middle schools dominate the top 10 on the list according to Niche by taking up 8 of the top 10 spots.  Not bad for having only 8 Middle schools in SRVUSD and half of these are located right here in Danville California
  • With 4 public and 2 alternative high schools in San Ramon Valley Unified School District,  the 2 located in Danville high schools San Ramon Valley High School and Monte Vista High School - which Both get A+ scores and rank as top in the state for a solid education.

These stats are compliments of NICHE.COM

To evaluate Performance, I looked at

  • Test scores
  • Academic progress (defined by how much a student learns in a year)
  • College readiness (based on key measures like graduation rates, college entrance tests and AP coursework).  Here is what I came up with the help of Great Schools.org

In Danville, Both Monte Vista High Schools and San Ramon Valley High School score the highest possible score for “Test Scores” scoring a 10/10

For Academic Progress score for Middle School level, the winner was Los Cerros Middle School!

And for College readiness was a tie again between SRVHS and MVHS with a 10 out of 10.  

  • Overall, Danville High Schools and SRVUSD overall get overall A+ ratings, and no school is perfect so lower scores for these schools being “Diversity” and “Clubs and Activities”
  • here’s my simple tip > Don’t stress, go with your gutt!  Kids change and what may be the best school for your kid NOW may change in a few years.  The good news and the simple tip is that as of the time this video was made in mid 2022, I’ve had families successfully apply for and receive inter-district transfers within the district.   Now, I don’t work for the district; however, with rumors of declining enrollment numbers, I do know several clients and families such as my own that have been able to change schools for whatever reason mid-way through a child’s academic career without too much difficulty.

No matter which school attendance boundary you end up in - Danville, California has superior schools and some of the best schools in the in the East Bay.

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