Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
William J. (Pete) Knight High → Highland High → Eastside High → Assurance Learning Academy → Lancaster High → Littlerock High → Antelope Valley High → Quartz Hill High →📋 At a glance
- 📚 17 AP courses offered — Elite
- 🔢 3 calculus classes · 1 physics · 15 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 80th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: 91th percentile by test-taker volume
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 79% (Bottom 26% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Palmdale High compares for families
Stronger-than-average college-prep profile.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor in the top 20% nationally with 17 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: William J. (Pete) Knight High, Highland High, Eastside High and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
For Parents
Follow Palmdale High
Get an email when Palmdale High's numbers change — new admissions results, enrollment shifts, test scores. A few updates a year, no spam.
🎓 Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Elite — exceptional AP + advanced course breadth
80th percentile nationally
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 · 2020-2191th percentile 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?
Bottom 26% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate
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.
👩🏫 Teacher workforce · federal CRDC
Teacher experience & reliability
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2017-18 — the most recent vintage that publishes per-school teacher quality fields; the 2020-21 sweep had them suppressed). "Inexperienced" = teachers in their first or second year. "Chronic absence" = teachers absent 10+ days/year.
🏛️ 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 -4.1%/year, projecting from 2024's 2,208 students:
≈ 413 fewer students by 2029 — a real revenue/relevance risk worth getting ahead of.
An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.
Revenue at risk
At $16,006 per student in district revenue, the 413 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $6,610,478/year in funding at risk.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| William J. (Pete) Knight High Palmdale |
Public | 4.6 | 2,349 | -19.7% |
| Highland High Palmdale |
Public | 5.1 | 2,706 | -4.9% |
| Eastside High Lancaster |
Public | 7.4 | 2,631 | -4.1% |
| Assurance Learning Academy Lancaster |
Public · charter | 6.9 | 3,014 | +3.2% |
| Lancaster High Lancaster |
Public | 10.1 | 2,688 | -1.4% |
| Littlerock High Littlerock |
Public | 8.6 | 1,507 | -4.9% |
| Antelope Valley High Lancaster |
Public | 8.9 | 1,498 | +2.7% |
| Quartz Hill High Quartz Hill |
Public | 10.3 | 3,175 | +4.8% |