Alternative Family Education

Santa Cruz · CA · Santa Cruz City High · Public · K-12 combined


📋 At a glance

Programs & features
  • ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
  • 🔢 1 calculus classes · 1 physics · 1 chemistry
Academic signals
  • 🎓 AP rigor: Bottom 33% of US high schools
  • 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 90% (Bottom 49% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)

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

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How Alternative Family Education compares for families

What families should know about Alternative Family Education.

  • LocallyCA trails the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (−4 points). Stronger local schools matter even more.
  • vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Ark Independent Studies, Santa Cruz County Special Education, Costanoa Continuation High and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.

For Parents

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Objective, government-grade data — no school pays us for placement.

🎓 Academic rigor

AP + advanced-course offerings

Moderate — some AP / advanced course access

Bottom 33% of US high schools

50th 90th ↑ this school
Less rigorMore rigorMost rigor
Advanced math classes
2
1 calculus · 1 advanced
Lab science classes
2
1 physics · 1 chemistry
Other rigor signals
✅ Dual-enrollment 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 · 2020-21
SAT/ACT test-takers
0
11th-12th graders who took 1+ college admissions test
Test-taking intensity
0.0
takers per 100 students in grades 9-12

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 49% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate

50th 90th
4-year graduation rate
90%
Range: 80–100%
4-year cohort size
19
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)
0%
Strong: experienced corps. New teachers rotate through but most have ≥3 years in.
% chronic teacher absence (≥10 days/yr)
17.5%
Elevated. Teacher absence directly affects classroom continuity and student outcomes.

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

Mixed-income school

Below Title I eligibility threshold (FRPL < 35%)

34.5%
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)

25-34% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. Below the federal Title I threshold but a meaningful share of the population is income-eligible for free lunch.

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.

Enrollment trend & projection

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

If the recent trend holds…

At its recent rate of -1.9%/year, projecting from 2024's 110 students:

2025
108
2027
104
2029
100

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.

SchoolTypeMilesHS enrollmentTrend
Ark Independent Studies
Santa Cruz
Public 0.0 56 -28.2%
Santa Cruz County Special Education
Santa Cruz
Public 1.5 56 +1.8%
Costanoa Continuation High
Santa Cruz
Public 0.0 77 -6.1%
New School Community Day
Watsonville
Public 13.8 42
Santa Cruz County ROP
Santa Cruz
Public 1.4
Santa Cruz County Court
Santa Cruz
Public 1.5 20
Delta Charter
Aptos
Public · charter 4.9 113 +8.7%
SLVUSD Charter
Ben Lomond
Public · charter 7.9 108 +28.6%

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