William Faria Elementary, Cupertino CA

Original Research by School Decision on William Faria Elementary

William Faria Elementary sits on Barbara Lane in Cupertino, a suburban Silicon Valley city where Apple's campuses are the dominant economic fact of life and where a large share of residents hold advanced degrees. The school serves kindergarten through fifth grade within the Cupertino Union School District.

The academic results here are among the strongest you will find anywhere in California. On the most recent CAASPP state assessments, proficiency rates in math across all three tested grades ran from the mid-nineties to near-perfect, and English Language Arts proficiency across grades three through five held in the low-to-mid nineties. Science, tested at the fifth grade level, came in just below ninety percent proficient. Placed against the broader landscape of districts in Santa Clara County, which is itself a high-performing county, the school's overall proficiency index lands in the top quartile. That is a genuinely strong result in a genuinely competitive field.

The student body is heavily Asian in composition, reflecting Cupertino's broader demographics, with smaller numbers of white students and students of two or more races. The share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch is modest, well below what you would find in most California schools. Data on English learners and students with IEPs was not available in the dataset, so parents with children who have learning differences or are acquiring English should ask the school directly about those programs and caseloads. Chronic absenteeism data was also not reported.

Because this is a kindergarten through fifth grade school, graduation rates do not apply here.

The housing market in Cupertino is one of the most expensive in the country. Median home values in the zip code run dramatically higher than the California statewide median, which is itself well above the national figure. Rents are similarly elevated and have been rising year over year. The rent-to-income ratio, measured against national median income, is deeply unaffordable, and the estimated monthly cost of ownership on a median-priced home in this market is substantial enough that families not already established here face a very high barrier to entry. This is not a neighborhood where proximity to a good school is cheap.

Cupertino itself is a car-oriented suburb. Daily life moves along Stevens Creek and De Anza boulevards, and there is no single walkable downtown, though the Civic Center area with its library and Memorial Park gives the city a civic anchor. The city is publicly reported to be working on a major redevelopment of the former Vallco mall site nearby, a project called The Rise that would eventually add a significant number of housing units, retail, and public park space to the area around the school's side of the city. Construction is expected to begin vertically in the coming year or two, which means some period of adjacent activity is likely on the horizon.

Program-level detail for Faria specifically was not available in the data, so the breadth of enrichment, arts, or STEM offerings at this particular campus is something to explore directly with the school.

District-level changes for Cupertino Union were searched but nothing durable surfaced within the research scope, so that context is absent here rather than guessed at.

What the data shows is a school with exceptionally high academic attainment by state standards, a demographically concentrated peer group, and a community built around an affluent and highly educated population. For a family already living in Cupertino, or in a position to afford it, the academic foundation at this school is as strong as California public elementary schools get.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 397%

School 97% · District 85% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 54 pts above state median · ▲ 40 pts above county median

Grade 498%

School 98% · District 83% · ▲ 15 pts above district

▲ 61 pts above state median · ▲ 44 pts above county median

Grade 596%

School 96% · District 82% · ▲ 14 pts above district

▲ 66 pts above state median · ▲ 49 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 395%

School 95% · District 77% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▲ 54 pts above state median · ▲ 42 pts above county median

Grade 492%

School 92% · District 78% · ▲ 14 pts above district

▲ 50 pts above state median · ▲ 37 pts above county median

Grade 595%

School 95% · District 81% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▲ 49 pts above state median · ▲ 37 pts above county median

Science

Grade 590%

School 90% · District 71% · ▲ 19 pts above district

▲ 62 pts above state median · ▲ 47 pts above county median

This schoolCupertino Union, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income100%Higher-income94%6 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income87%Higher-income93%6 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income93%Higher-income95%2 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income100%Higher-income96%4 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income93%Higher-income99%6 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income86%Higher-income98%12 pp gap