El Capitan High
Merced · CA · Merced Union High · Public
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Most similar nearby schools
Merced County ROP → John H. Pitman High → Turlock High → Pacheco High → Ceres High → Chowchilla Union High → Los Banos High → Peter Johansen High →📋 At a glance
- 📚 15 AP courses offered — Elite
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🔢 1 calculus classes · 1 physics · 15 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 82th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 39% by test-taker volume
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 98% (Top 2.3% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How El Capitan High compares for families
Stronger-than-average college-prep profile.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor in the top 18% nationally with 15 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: Merced County ROP, John H. Pitman High, Turlock 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
82th 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 39% 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?
Top 2.3% 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
High-poverty school
Title I Schoolwide eligible
≥75% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. These schools qualify for the highest tier of federal Title I funding and typically receive extra wraparound services. Academic outcomes vary widely — check the state assessment + grad-rate tiles.
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 -1.0%/year, projecting from 2024's 1,793 students:
≈ 90 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 $18,394 per student in district revenue, the 90 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $1,655,460/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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Merced County ROP Merced |
Public | 5.0 | — | — |
| John H. Pitman High Turlock |
Public | 25.1 | 1,986 | -4.3% |
| Turlock High Turlock |
Public | 21.9 | 2,479 | -1.3% |
| Pacheco High Los Banos |
Public | 28.1 | 1,725 | -5.3% |
| Ceres High Ceres |
Public | 31.0 | 1,660 | -8.1% |
| Chowchilla Union High Chowchilla |
Public | 20.9 | 1,017 | -6.7% |
| Los Banos High Los Banos |
Public | 30.0 | 1,543 | -1.6% |
| Peter Johansen High Modesto |
Public | 31.3 | 2,029 | +5.6% |