Atascadero Choices in Education Academy (ACE)

Atascadero · CA · Atascadero Unified · Public

Public 🏛 Atascadero Unified →

Similar nearby schools

Most similar nearby schools

Grizzly ChalleNGe Charter → Coast Union High → San Luis Obispo County Community → Shandon High → Lopez Continuation High → Templeton High → Maple High → Kings County Special Education →

🎓95% 4-yr grad rate

📋 At a glance

Programs & features

✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
✅ Gifted & talented program

Academic signals

🎓 AP rigor: Bottom 44% of US high schools
📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 1% by test-taker volume
🎓 4-yr grad rate: 95% (75th percentile nationally)

Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.

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How Atascadero Choices in Education Academy (ACE) compares for families

Solid mid-tier academic profile.

▸ LocallyCA trails the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (−4 points). Stronger local schools matter even more.
▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Grizzly ChalleNGe Charter, Coast Union High, San Luis Obispo County Community and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.

For Parents

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Get an email when Atascadero Choices in Education Academy (ACE)'s numbers change — new admissions results, enrollment shifts, test scores. A few updates a year, no spam.

SAT / ACT participation

CRDC federal data · 2020-21

Bottom 1% by test-taker volume

SAT/ACT test-takers

11th-12th graders who took 1+ college admissions test

Test-taking intensity

0.6

takers per 100 students in grades 9-12

Compared against

18,426

US high schools reporting SAT/ACT participation

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?

75th percentile nationally

4-year graduation rate

95%

Range: 90–100%

4-year cohort size

Students in the 9th-grade entry class tracked over 4 years

Compared against

17,988

US high schools reporting 4-year ACGR

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

% inexperienced teachers (1st-2nd yr)

Strong: experienced corps. New teachers rotate through but most have ≥3 years in.

% chronic teacher absence (≥10 days/yr)

0.0%

Strong attendance culture among teachers.

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

40.9%

FRPL rate — % of students who qualify for the federal Free or Reduced-Price Lunch program. This is the underlying federal income-eligibility signal Title I designations are computed from (ESEA Sec. 1113).

0% (no FRPL) 35% TA · 40% Schoolwide 100% (universal FRPL)

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

Student : Counselor

795:1

Well above the US median — a real constraint on individualized college and course planning.

Counselor FTE

0.2

Full-time-equivalent school counselors on staff.

Teacher FTE

Full-time-equivalent classroom teachers.

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

Grade 12 went from 64 in 2021 to 56 in 2024 — over 3 years.

-12.5%

Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).

If the recent trend holds…

At its recent rate of -18.3%/year, projecting from 2024's 159 students:

2025

130

2027

2029

A small or specialty program — naive trend math doesn't capture the school's full picture. Read the trend as directional, not predictive.

An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.

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
Grizzly ChalleNGe Charter San Luis Obispo	Public · charter	10.6	241	+36.2%
Coast Union High Cambria	Public	25.3	159	-1.2%
San Luis Obispo County Community San Luis Obispo	Public	9.9	73	+25.9%
Shandon High Shandon	Public	20.0	83	-5.7%
Lopez Continuation High Arroyo Grande	Public	27.2	96	-22.0%
Templeton High Templeton	Public	7.1	725	-4.6%
Maple High Lompoc	Public	53.6	135	+7.1%
Kings County Special Education Hanford	Public	82.9	126	+1.6%