Ruth Acty Elementary vs Rosa Parks Environmental Science

Ruth Acty Elementary and Rosa Parks Environmental Science sit 1.1 miles apart in Berkeley, but their overall ratings diverge meaningfully: Ruth Acty Elementary scores 9.7/10 against Rosa Parks Environmental Science's 8.8/10 — a 0.9-point gap. The state-rank spread is starker still. Ruth Acty Elementary ranks #3 of 9,533 California elementary schools, placing it in the top fraction of a percent statewide. Rosa Parks Environmental Science ranks #408 of 9,533 — an excellent school by any honest measure, but operating in a different tier altogether.

On the academic dimension, Ruth Acty Elementary posts a 9.8/10 versus Rosa Parks Environmental Science's 9.3/10. The growth score gap is wider: Ruth Acty Elementary earns a 9.8/10 while Rosa Parks Environmental Science scores 8.4/10 — a 1.4-point difference indicating that Ruth Acty Elementary students are advancing at a faster rate relative to similar peers, not simply arriving with stronger baselines. Both schools are KG–05, so the comparison holds across identical grade spans.

Demographically, the two schools tell different stories. Rosa Parks Environmental Science serves a higher share of economically disadvantaged students — 30% qualify for free or reduced-price lunch compared to 17% at Ruth Acty Elementary. Enrollment is nearly identical (371 vs. 396 students), and student-teacher ratios are functionally the same at 20.6:1 and 20.8:1 respectively, so class-size experience won't drive a family's choice. The FRL gap does signal that the two schools draw from meaningfully different socioeconomic catchments within the same city.

Rosa Parks Environmental Science distinguishes itself with a dedicated environmental science identity embedded in its name and programmatic focus — a concrete curricular differentiator for families seeking a themed school experience. Ruth Acty Elementary carries no branded curricular theme but compensates with raw performance metrics that sit at the near-absolute ceiling of California's rating scale, suggesting a consistently high-achieving general-education environment across the elementary years.