- Jefferson High School is 97% minority and is currently rated on the Academic Performance Index (API) by the State of California as a 2 on a scale of 1 to 10 and out of 17 schools in the county of San Mateo, Jefferson is the lowest ranking high school.
- Pollicita Middle School, Jefferson's largest feeder school, has been designated as a Program Improvement-5, the federal designation for schools with consecutive years of unacceptable progress.
- The medium reading grade level of students entering Jefferson High as Freshman is the sixth month of the sixth grade.
- More then half the students at the middle schools receive free or reduced lunches, a poverty indicator. At Jefferson, more than 63% of students are eligible.
- According to the State Physical Fitness Test results, 26% of Jefferson High and Pollicita Middle School students are overweight.
- More than 41% of Jefferson students are “not in the healthy fitness zone” in terms of aerobic or lung capacity. Only 17% can pass all ten of the State Fitness standard tests.
- Being overweight during the teen years has been associated with poor academic performance, as well as increased likelihood of depression and lowered self-esteem.