Hi Jon Z,
We lived there for many years and moved out a couple of years ago.
My oldest went to Monta Vista. She was on the fast track plan. Recently, (maybe last year?) her friends told her it ranked 23rd in the country. I don't really go for high school rankings much, since they don't include concurrent enrollment data or early graduation data. She and her friends have done very well in colleges, and many have full rides, especially to the UC system (favoring Berkeley, Davis, and UCLA) and a few at Stanford.
We had a wonderful experience living in Cupertino. And it is considered the best elementary school district in the state. This has come up on many surveys for a well-rounded education - acceleration, languages, arts, music, musical theater, band, and more. The elementary schools also worked with EPGY to help advanced math students move forward.
Also, the computer labs provided by Apple and the training for the teachers to implement the programs needed for the students is a benefit. They also have many field trips to a variety of educational experiences - besides camping for the week, they go to the tech museum, Stanford museum, and went to Sunnyvale Theater productions. My son was in a group in 5th grade that learned how to use the computers and media to present a daily tv school news morning show that they wrote. He also did Lego robotics. I could go on as why it continuously is ranked for elementary school districts.
When we lived there, De Anza was ranked 5th in the nation. Several of the classes my daughter took there were taught by Stanford and MIT professors. Many of the students there go right to Berkeley and Stanford and do well, but many do have a lackadasial attitude. It is a junior college. Maybe I can find stats on where they go after attending there.
As far as Faria, it is a gifted school. Unless they changed things in the past year and a half, students have to take a test and supply other information to attend. The people I know there did very well, and I was impressed with the many activities/projects that the students were able to work on. Another unique school in the district is Portal, who don't use grades (if I remember correctly).
By the way, I never said that "competitive" is good. I'm not big on worrying about grade levels or grades, which is a competitive viewpoint. I'm always considered more about learning a lot for a given amount of time. My philosophy is that I want my kids to learn and love learning. I want opportunities available to them to expand their interests and the teachers to care. I want funding available for arts. We found all of that and more available there.
