Best Schools in Burlingame, California

Burlingame runs a compact public school system — 9 ranked schools spanning elementary through high school, with a city average of 7.0 out of 10. That figure puts Burlingame well ahead of most California cities its size. More telling: 44% of its schools, 4 out of 9, score 7.0 or higher. That density of high performers is unusual for a district this small.

Burlingame High sets the ceiling. It scores 9.1 out of 10 — the strongest school in the city and a score that holds up against the best high schools anywhere in the Bay Area. Families already in the district have a clear payoff waiting at the end of the K-8 pathway. The high school alone is worth factoring into a housing decision.

The elementary and middle schools cluster tightly below it. Hoover Elementary leads at 7.9, followed by Burlingame Intermediate at 7.5 at the middle school level, then Roosevelt Elementary at 7.2 and Franklin Elementary at 6.8. That 1.1-point spread across four buildings is notably narrow. There are no lagging schools pulling the city average down — the floor is genuinely solid. Franklin's 6.8 would rank as an above-average school in most Bay Area districts outside the immediate Peninsula corridor.

For parents comparing neighborhoods in Burlingame, the boundary-shopping calculus is simpler than in many comparable cities. When the weakest elementary is this close to the strongest, assignment zone matters less than it would in a district with a wider performance spread. The more important variables — grade-level proficiency breakdowns, student-to-teacher ratios, demographic equity scores — live inside the individual school profiles. Use the comparative scores here as a screen, then go deeper on those details before finalizing a neighborhood. The top line on Burlingame: it's a reliable district, and Burlingame High makes it a compelling long-term choice for families planning to stay through graduation.