How to find distinguished elementary, middle and high schools in Contra Costa County

To find the very best schools for your kids in Contra Costa County, you should definitely review the awards given by the California Department of Education (CDE).

CDE gives annual Distinguished Schools awards to schools in counties in California.

For middle and high schools, you can find the awards list here.

And for elementary schools, you can find that list here.


Of course, you should never make a decision about a school based solely on the awards it receives. There is a lot more research to do to find the best and most appropriate school.

For API scores for California schools, make sure to visit this website. There you will find the schools with the highest API scores in cities like Antioch, Pittsburg, Brentwood, Concord, Walnut Creek, and others.

Finding the best preschools in Contra Costa County

If you are looking for a great preschool in Contra Costa County, I found a website that can help you. Just go to nces.ed.gov and you can do a search for the preschool of your liking.

I did a sample search here for Contra Costa County preschools with a minimum of 200 students in that school (most schools contain both preschool and elementary students, or more). The results of that search are as follows:

School Name Phone County Students  Grades

1. CALVARY TEMPLE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL 4725 Evora Rd, Concord, CA 94520 (925) 458-9870 Contra Costa 232 PK-8

2. CONTRA COSTA CHRISTIAN SCHOOL 2721 Larkey Ln, Walnut Creek, CA 94597 (925) 934-4964 Contra Costa 297 PK-12

3. CORNERSTONE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL 1745 E 18th St, Antioch, CA 94509 (925) 779-2010 Contra Costa 512 PK-12

4. HOLY ROSARY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 25 E 15th St, Antioch, CA 94509 (925) 757-1270 Contra Costa 601 PK-8

5. KINGS VALLEY CHRISTIAN SCHOOL 4255 Clayton Rd, Concord, CA 94521 (925) 687-2020 Contra Costa 282 PK-8

6. MEHER SCHOOLS 999 Leland Dr, Lafayette, CA 94549 (925) 938-9958 Contra Costa 329 PK-5

7. NORTHCREEK ACADEMY & PRESCHOOL 2303 Ygnacio Valley Rd A, Walnut Creek, CA 94598 (925) 954-6322 Contra Costa 620 PK-8

8. PALMER SCHOOL 2740 Jones Rd, Walnut Creek, CA 94597 (925) 934-4888 Contra Costa 332 PK-8

9. SEVEN HILLS SCHOOL 975 N San Carlos Dr, Walnut Creek, CA 94598 (925) 933-0666 Contra Costa 386 PK-8

10. ST MARY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 1158 Bont Ln, Walnut Creek, CA 94596 (925) 935-5054 Contra Costa 292 PK-8

11. ST PATRICK SCHOOL 907 7th St, Rodeo, CA 94572 (510) 799-2506 Contra Costa 303 PK-8

12. ST PETER MARTYR 425 W 4th St, Pittsburg, CA 94565 (925) 439-1011 Contra Costa 290 PK-8

13. TABERNACLE SCHOOL 4380 Concord Blvd, Concord, CA 94521 (925) 685-9169 Contra Costa 490 PK-8

14. THE DORRIS-EATON SCHOOL 1847 Newell Ave, Walnut Creek, CA 94595 (925) 933-5225 Contra Costa 436 PK-8

15. TRINITY CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS 5000 Amaryllis Dr, Oakley, CA 94561 (925) 625-9014 Contra Costa 227 PK-12

How to find the best public elementary schools in Contra Costa County

Parents want the best schools for their kids. If you live in Contra Costa County and you are looking for the bets public elementary schools for your children, you might want to know the names of those schools.

Well, you can do this search in a number of ways. One way is to go to school-ratings.comhttp://school-ratings.com/and select a ranking of 10 for elementary schools in Contra Costa County, State of California. You can find the results here.


Some of their results include the following schools:

Clayton-- Mt. Diablo Elementary

Concord--Monte Gardens Elementary

And these other cities have three or more schools ranked at level 10:
Danville, Lafayette, Moraga, Orinda, San Ramon and Walnut Creek.


So if you want to go to one of the best public elementary schools in Contra Costa County, you need to do your homework and find out which ones are ranked the highest.

Best high schools in the Bay Area in 2013

In case you missed it, the 2013 rankings for the best high schools in California can be found here.

So if you were wondering if that special school you like in the Northern California Bay Area made the list, you can review the following schools that made it on the list of the top 25:

• American Indian Public High School in Oakland, CA
• Lowell High School in San Francisco, CA
• Mission San Jose in Fremont, CA
• Monta Vista in Cupertino, CA
• Campolinda in Moraga, CA
• Piedmont High in Piedmont, CA
• Saratoga High in Saratoga, CA
• Miramonte High in Orinda, CA

Find the complete California list at this website.

Best Private Elementary Schools in Concord, California (Contra Costa County)

Finding a great elementary school can be very difficult in Contra Costa County, especially one that is accredited and has plenty of resources. So start your search here by narrowing your school search by your city. You can then see the size of the schools in your area. Maybe you want a school that is not too small, otherwise it may not have enough resources.

Next, after choosing a few schools, you should make sure those schools are accredited. Let us say you have picked a few private schools in Concord, California (for example) and you want to see which ones of those have accreditation by WASC. So then go to this website.

So here are the results for the best accredited private elementary schools in Concord, California (Contra Costa County), in alphabetical order:

• Calvary Temple Christian School   
• Carondelet High School 
• De La Salle High School   
• King's Valley Christian School  
• Queen of All Saints School  
• St. Agnes School 
• St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School 
• Tabernacle Christian School 

There you have one example of trying to find the best private school in one region of Contra Costa County. Both size and accreditation matters when it comes to finding a high-quality elementary school in the East Bay.

How to find East Bay schools with the highest rankings in API scores, CST scores, or SAT scores

If you are a parent of children in the East Bay, you may be wondering how you can find the absolute best schools for your children. Well, there are some very good schools in the Bay Area in general, and there are some outstanding schools in the East Bay, for sure.

The Los Angeles Times has a great website to get rankings for the API scores, CST scores and SAT scores. Let's do a sample for schools in Contra Costa County:

For schools with the highest API scores in this county, visit this page.

For schools with the highest CST English scores in this county, visit this link.

And for schools with the highest SAT scores in this county, go here.

Of course this data may change over time. And you should always make sure the schools you choose are accredited by a major accrediting agency. Good luck with your school search.


Additionally, for general information about private and public schools in Contra Costa County, make sure to check out privateschoolreview.com.

Tips on finding public and private accredited schools in the East Bay and Bay Area

If you want a high-quality public or private school for your children, you should find one that is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) Accrediting Commission for Schools.

To search your city or county, go to the WASC website to start your search. Then scroll through the results page to make sure your school has accreditation by this commission.

Accreditation is very important because it shows that the school's teachers and administrators have met high professional standards. More information about accreditation can be found here.