Santa Cruz County Community

Santa Cruz · CA · Santa Cruz County Office of Education · Public · K-12 combined

Public Santa Cruz County Office of Education →

Similar nearby schools

Most similar nearby schools

Scotts Valley High → Harbor High → San Lorenzo Valley High → Santa Cruz High → Soquel High → Ocean Grove Charter → Santa Cruz County ROP → Pacific Collegiate Charter →

At a glance

Programs & features

Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)

Academic signals

AP rigor: Bottom 44% of US high schools
4-yr grad rate: 61% in 2019 (Bottom 12% 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 Santa Cruz County Community 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: Scotts Valley High, Harbor High, San Lorenzo Valley High and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.

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

SAT / ACT participation

CRDC federal data · 2020-21

SAT/ACT test-takers

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 12% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate

4-year graduation rate

61%

Single-point estimate

4-year cohort size

329

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

58.5%

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)

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

730:1

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

Counselor FTE

1.0

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 255 in 2021 to 249 in 2024 — over 3 years.

-2.4%

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

If the recent trend holds…

At its recent rate of +3.1%/year, projecting from 2024's 730 students:

2025

753

2027

800

2029

850

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
Scotts Valley High Scotts Valley	Public	6.1	611	-16.8%
Harbor High Santa Cruz	Public	2.6	1,013	-2.9%
San Lorenzo Valley High Felton	Public	5.6	578	-18.2%
Santa Cruz High Santa Cruz	Public	1.2	1,093	-3.4%
Soquel High Soquel	Public	4.4	1,074	+5.1%
Ocean Grove Charter Boulder Creek	Public · charter	13.5	648	+8.0%
Santa Cruz County ROP Santa Cruz	Public	0.1	—	—
Pacific Collegiate Charter Santa Cruz	Public · charter	2.2	336	-8.4%