Central Union High
El Centro · CA · Central Union High · Public
Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
Southwest High → Brawley Union High → Imperial Valley ROP → Indio High → Bonita Vista Senior High → San Ysidro High → Palm Desert High → Desert Mirage High →📋 At a glance
- 📚 16 AP courses offered — Elite
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🔢 1 calculus classes · 12 physics · 13 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 86th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 14% by test-taker volume
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 92% (60th percentile nationally)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Central Union High compares for families
Standout academic depth by national standards.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor in the top 14% nationally with 16 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: Southwest High, Brawley Union High, Imperial Valley ROP and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
For Parents
Follow Central Union High
Get an email when Central Union 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
86th 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 14% 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?
60th 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.
👩🏫 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 +1.2%/year, projecting from 2024's 2,006 students:
An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.
Revenue upside
At $19,944 per student in district revenue, the 124 students projected to be gained by 2029 represent ≈ $2,473,056/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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest High El Centro |
Public | 1.3 | 1,846 | -2.9% |
| Brawley Union High Brawley |
Public | 13.5 | 1,863 | +1.0% |
| Imperial Valley ROP El Centro |
Public | 0.4 | — | — |
| Indio High Indio |
Public | 74.8 | 1,962 | -2.7% |
| Bonita Vista Senior High Chula Vista |
Public | 83.9 | 1,960 | -12.3% |
| San Ysidro High San Diego |
Public | 85.9 | 1,941 | -19.4% |
| Palm Desert High Palm Desert |
Public | 79.8 | 2,079 | -2.0% |
| Desert Mirage High Thermal |
Public | 64.2 | 1,875 | -10.8% |