Charles H. Kim Elementary vs Sally Ride Elementary: A SMArT Academy

Charles H. Kim Elementary holds a 1.0-point overall rating advantage over Sally Ride Elementary: A SMArT Academy — 9.6/10 versus 8.6/10 — and that gap widens considerably in California's state rankings. Kim ranks #9 of 9,533 schools statewide, placing it in a tier reached by fewer than one in a thousand California elementary schools. Sally Ride sits at #559 of 9,533, an objectively strong result, but 550 positions behind its crosstown counterpart 5.5 miles away.

The sharpest difference between the two schools is academic proficiency. Charles H. Kim Elementary scores 9.5/10 on academics against Sally Ride Elementary: A SMArT Academy's 7.6/10 — a 1.9-point delta that reflects a meaningful gap in tested performance. Growth scores tell a tighter story: Kim earns a 9.8/10 and Sally Ride earns a 9.5/10, meaning both schools push students forward at an elite pace regardless of where they start. Families weighing current achievement levels against improvement trajectory will find Kim stronger on both dimensions, but Sally Ride's growth score signals a faculty that is extracting near-maximum gains from its student body.

Both schools serve high-poverty populations, but Sally Ride Elementary: A SMArT Academy skews slightly higher: 93% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch versus 88% at Charles H. Kim Elementary. Kim enrolls 472 students compared to Sally Ride's 378, and its student-teacher ratio of 18.2:1 offers meaningfully more classroom contact time than Sally Ride's 22.2:1. A four-student-per-teacher difference at the elementary level compounds across a full school year of small-group instruction and individual attention.

Both schools serve grades KG–05, so families with children across early elementary years can plan a full primary-school run at either campus without a grade-level gap. Sally Ride's identity as a SMART Academy (Science, Mathematics, and Related Technology) signals a structured focus on STEM integration from kindergarten, a programmatic distinction Kim does not carry. Families drawn specifically to an organized STEM thread through all six elementary grades have a concrete reason to weigh Sally Ride's curriculum against Kim's higher aggregate scores.