Helix High
La Mesa · CA · Helix High District · Public charter
Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
San Diego Workforce Innovation High → Eastlake High → Sweetwater High → Otay Ranch Senior High → Olympian High → Bonita Vista Senior High → Mira Mesa High → Hilltop Senior High →📋 At a glance
- 📚 10 AP courses offered — Elite
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🔢 6 calculus classes · 13 physics · 21 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 78th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 6% by test-taker volume
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 97% (90th percentile nationally)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Helix High compares for families
Stronger-than-average college-prep profile.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor in the top 22% nationally with 10 AP courses.
- ▸ LocallyCA trails the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (−4 points). Stronger local schools matter even more.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: San Diego Workforce Innovation High, Eastlake High, Sweetwater High and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
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🎓 Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Elite — exceptional AP + advanced course breadth
78th percentile nationally
✅ Gifted/talented program
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). CRDC reports what's offered + enrolled — it doesn't collect AP exam pass rates (College Board owns that data and doesn't release it school-level).
SAT / ACT participation
CRDC federal data · 2020-21Bottom 6% by test-taker volume
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). Volume — not score — is what's reported here. A higher count means more students at this school are entering the college admissions pipeline. Note: 2020-21 was COVID-disrupted; some districts (especially those that stayed remote longer) report unusually low or zero takers.
🎓 4-year graduation rate · federal EDFacts
What % of students graduate on time?
90th percentile nationally
Source: federal EDFacts ACGR (Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate), 2019 vintage via Urban Institute. EDFacts publishes a range (low-high) to preserve privacy on small cohorts; we display the midpoint.
🏛️ Federal Title I context
Title I Schoolwide eligible
≥40% FRPL — qualifies for Title I Schoolwide program
40-74% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. The district can use Title I funds across the whole school under federal Schoolwide Program rules.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data, free/reduced-price lunch eligibility. The actual Title I designation is a district decision and may differ from eligibility — but the federal eligibility math is what we show here. We don't claim to assert whether the district formally chose to enroll this school in Title I.
Counselor capacity
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020-2021. Counselor ratio = the school's most recent total enrollment ÷ counselor FTE. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends a 250:1 maximum; the US national median across schools with on-staff counselors is roughly 430:1.
Enrollment trend & projection
Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).
If the recent trend holds…
At its recent rate of +1.3%/year, projecting from 2024's 2,554 students:
An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.
Revenue upside
At $12,967 per student in district revenue, the 167 students projected to be gained by 2029 represent ≈ $2,165,489/year in additional funding.
District total revenue ÷ enrollment, NCES F-33. Public funding largely follows enrollment, so a shrinking class is a recurring budget hit.
Most similar nearby high schools
The schools most like this one — same type, blended on distance and size — and where their enrollment is heading. These are the schools families here weigh against each other.
| School | Type | Miles | HS enrollment | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Diego Workforce Innovation High National City |
Public · charter | 5.3 | 2,722 | +10.3% |
| Eastlake High Chula Vista |
Public | 8.8 | 2,557 | -10.2% |
| Sweetwater High National City |
Public | 7.3 | 2,290 | -18.3% |
| Otay Ranch Senior High Chula Vista |
Public | 9.6 | 2,440 | -3.0% |
| Olympian High Chula Vista |
Public | 10.7 | 2,289 | -0.9% |
| Bonita Vista Senior High Chula Vista |
Public | 7.8 | 1,960 | -12.3% |
| Mira Mesa High San Diego |
Public | 12.4 | 2,187 | -4.5% |
| Hilltop Senior High Chula Vista |
Public | 8.2 | 1,771 | -7.1% |