Leland High School is a public high school located in the Almaden Valley in San Jose, California. Leland is one of the nine high schools in the San Jose Unified School District and is a STEM school.

History

Leland was founded in 1967. It was named for Raymond B. Leland, who had served as principal of San Jose High School, and his son Gordon Leland, who had been a student at the school and had died in World War II.

Awards and recognition

Leland has won accolades for its speech and debate team, and more recently its FIRST Robotics Competition Quixilver 604 and its FIRST Tech Challenge Quixilver 8404 robotics teams. In 2021, U.S. News & World Report ranked Leland as the number 1 high school in San Jose Unified School District and number 68 in the state of California, and the education ranking and review website Niche ranked the school as the number 1 high school in the district and number 77 in the state. In 2014, Leland was ranked number 20 in the United States for high standardized test scores between 2012-2014. Newsweek ranked Leland High School 54th in the nation. During the 2004–05 school year, Leland High School was recognized with the Blue Ribbon School Award of Excellence by the United States Department of Education, the highest award an American school can receive.

Notable alumni and staff