Redwood Heights Elementary vs Sequoia Elementary

Redwood Heights Elementary and Sequoia Elementary are separated by just 1.4 miles in Oakland, California, and their overall ratings are nearly identical — both score 8.4/10 — with state ranks of #982 and #983 out of 9,533 California schools respectively. Parents choosing between them on reputation alone will find no meaningful gap at the top line, which makes the underlying data more important than it might otherwise be.

The academic and growth numbers tell a subtler story. Redwood Heights Elementary holds a 9.7/10 academic score against Sequoia Elementary's 9.2/10, a half-point gap that reflects a concrete difference in proficiency outcomes. On growth — how much students gain relative to peers — Redwood Heights scores a perfect 10.0/10 while Sequoia Elementary scores 9.9/10, making both schools exceptional on this dimension but giving Redwood Heights a fractional edge. Families prioritizing test-score benchmarks will find more headroom at Redwood Heights, while either school would satisfy a family focused primarily on student growth trajectories.

The clearest structural difference between the two schools is class size. Redwood Heights Elementary carries a student-teacher ratio of 27.4:1 compared to Sequoia Elementary's 23.5:1 — nearly four fewer students per teacher at Sequoia. Total enrollment also differs: Sequoia Elementary serves 447 students versus Redwood Heights Elementary's 383, meaning Sequoia is both larger in headcount and, somewhat counterintuitively, better staffed relative to that enrollment. Both schools serve identical free and reduced lunch populations at 44%, indicating comparable socioeconomic diversity with no equity difference between them on that measure.

Both schools serve grades KG–05, so families at any elementary stage have the same grade coverage at either campus. The near-identical state ranks — one slot apart in a pool of over 9,500 schools — underscore how closely matched these two Oakland elementaries are at the programmatic and outcomes level. The practical differentiators come down to the academic score gap and the student-teacher ratio, not structural or demographic divergence.