Compare with peers
Most similar nearby schools
LA Serna High School → Sunny Hills High School → Norwalk High School → El Rancho High School → Mayfair High School → Compare all similar →📋 At a glance
- 📚 19 AP courses offered — Elite
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- 🔢 6 calculus classes · 24 physics · 44 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 90th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 11% 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.
🎓 Where grads go
UC admits by campus · Class of 2025
Source: University of California Office of the President, Admissions by Source School. Full campus-by-campus breakdown below.
How California High compares for families
Real college outcomes data available below.
- ▸ Statewide12.5% UC Reach — 5.6 points below the California median of 18.1%.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsRight at the peer median (14.8% UC Reach) across the 5 most similar nearby schools.
For Parents
Follow California High
Get an email when California 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
90th percentile nationally
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 11% 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.
🏛️ 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.
SBAC academic outcomes — grade 11, 2025
Share of grade-11 students meeting or exceeding the California standard on Smarter Balanced ELA and Math. This is the academic-readiness signal that pairs with UC Reach (post-grad outcomes), stability (retention), and absenteeism (engagement). Note: statewide median Math is only ~20% — a school at 20% isn't an outlier; one at 45%+ genuinely is.
Source: California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) Smarter Balanced research files. Benchmarks limited to non-virtual public & charter HS with ≥30 tested students.
Student composition — 2025-26
HS grades 9–12 racial/ethnic composition and program subgroups, from CDE Census Day Enrollment. Two-year shift shown when ≥1 pt — surfaces how the community served has changed since 2023-24.
Race / ethnicity
Program subgroups
Source: California Department of Education, Census Day Enrollment 2025-26 (HS grades 9–12). Δ shown when shift is ≥1 pt since 2023-24. Categories below 0.5% omitted.
Chronic absenteeism — 2024-25
Share of students missing 10% or more of expected attendance — the leading indicator that often precedes the demand decline shown above. Families disengaging tend to raise absenteeism first, then formally leave. Basis: grades 9–12.
Absenteeism is up 11.1 pp since 2016-17. A rising absenteeism trend often precedes formal departure — worth investigating which subgroups are driving it.
Source: California Department of Education, Chronic Absenteeism 2024-25. Benchmarks limited to non-virtual public & charter HS with ≥100 eligible students. CDE didn't publish a usable 2019-20 file (COVID).
Enrollment trend & projection
If this trend holds (-3.2%/yr, Total enrollment)
At per-pupil funding of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Funding impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2027) | ~2,189 | -74 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2029) | ~2,049 | -214 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2031) | ~1,918 | -345 | $0 |
Straight-line extrapolation of the recent annual rate — a what-if, not a forecast of intent. Default = California's LCFF base grant for grades 9–12 ($12,423/ADA). Edit the figure to match your school.
California High — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot
Public · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools
- ▸On UC Reach, California High sits in the middle of its similar-school group (ranked #8 of 11): 12% vs. a peer median of 15%.
- ▸California High's UC Reach has stepped down from a peak of 20% in 2022 to 12% in 2025 — a 7-point decline worth tracking.
- ▸Senior-class enrollment is down 8% (649→595 from 2018 to 2026), outpacing the peer-group median of -11%.
- ▸At its recent rate (-2.8%/yr), enrollment projects to ~2081 by 2029 — about 182 fewer students than today.
Enrollment projection
That's about 182 fewer students. At per-student funding of $ per student, that's roughly $0 in annual state funding at risk.
Default = California's LCFF base grant for grades 9–12 ($12,423 per ADA) — adjust to your district's actual per-pupil figure. Projection extrapolates the recent annual rate — not a forecast of intent.
Your school vs. its 10 most similar nearby schools
| School | Type | Size | UC Reach | Enroll. trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California High | Public | 2263 | 12.5% | -8% |
| Peer-group median | 14.8% | -11% | ||
| LA Serna High School | Public | 2432 | 16.6% | -15% |
| Sunny Hills High School | Public | 2344 | 53.3% | +4% |
| Norwalk High School | Public | 1962 | 11.0% | -6% |
| El Rancho High School | Public | 1947 | 19.8% | -16% |
| Mayfair High School | Public | 2293 | 10.0% | +1% |
| LA Habra High School | Public | 1841 | 9.6% | -9% |
| LA Mirada High School | Public | 1689 | 12.7% | -14% |
| Cerritos High School | Public | 1954 | 48.4% | -1% |
| Bellflower High School | Public | 1959 | 15.0% | -13% |
| Santa Fe High School | Public | 1756 | 14.7% | -24% |
UC Reach = top-6 UC admits ÷ senior class (can exceed 100% when students are admitted to multiple campuses). Enrollment trend = first-to-latest grade-12 change on file. Similar schools matched on proximity, size, type. Methodology →
Enrollment stability & demand — 2024-25
Two complementary signals: retention (do students stay once enrolled?) and demand (are families choosing the school?). Read against the Los Angeles County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.
California High's enrollment is tracking Los Angeles County's baseline (-8.3% vs. -8.2%), and 91.2% stability is elite. The demographic tide is the headwind; you're holding your share.
207 of 2,354 students who enrolled at California High this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (8.8% non-stability). Mid-year transfers, dropouts, and other exits are all counted.
Stability by student group
Nearest peer high schools
Source: California Department of Education, Stability Rate 2024-25. Benchmarks limited to non-virtual public & charter HS with ≥100 cumulative enrollees so by-design-high-churn continuation schools don't dominate the bottom of the distribution. Cumulative enrollment counts every student on the rolls during the year, so it can exceed peak-day enrollment.
District financial profile — Whittier Union High (FY2020)
From 4 years of NCES F-33 filings (the federally-mandated district finance survey). Public schools don't have their own books — the district does. These figures show the financial scale, revenue dependence, instruction-vs-overhead mix, and long-term debt that shape what a school can sustain.
Local: 29.6%
Federal: 12.2%
Source: NCES F-33 Annual Survey of School System Finances (Urban Institute Education Data API). Latest year currently published: FY2020. F-33 is a district-level federal filing — it reflects the Whittier Union High as a whole, not this individual school's books. Revenue mix shows where the district's dollars come from (state aid dominates in CA via LCFF). Instruction share is current expenditure on instruction ÷ total current expenditure (national benchmark ~60%). Long-term debt is end-of-year outstanding (mostly facilities bonds).
California High sent 373 applications to the six most selective University of California campuses and 17.4% were admitted, producing a UC Reach of 12.5% — 5.6 percentage points below the California median of 18.1%, higher than 29% of California high schools. The school produces 3.5 UCLA + UC Berkeley admits per 100 seniors.
-2.3 pp vs. peer median (14.8%) · Ranked #8 of 11 similar schools
18.1%
51.2%
12.5%
Higher than 29% of California high schools (978 ranked, ≥50 seniors)
California High's UC Reach of 12.5% is below the California median (18.1%). The top 10% of CA schools achieve 51.2% or higher.
Overall, California High's UC Reach is higher than 29% of California high schools (978 ranked).
UC Outcomes Trend — 2018–2025
Class size from CDE grade 12 enrollment. Campus-level data — applicant/admit totals may count a student at multiple campuses more than once.
Campus Breakdown — 2025
| Campus | Applicants | Admits | Enrollees | Admit Rate | UC Reach | Yield | Avg GPA (App) | Avg GPA (Adm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley → Elite | 55 | 11 | 4 | 20.0% | 2.1% | 36.4% | — | —† |
| UCLA → Elite | 90 | 7 | 5 | 7.8% | 1.3% | 71.4% | — | —† |
| UC San Diego → Selective | 49 | 7 | —† | 14.3% | 1.3% | — | — | —† |
| UC Santa Barbara → Selective | 49 | 18 | 6 | 36.7% | 3.5% | 33.3% | — | —† |
| UC Irvine → Selective | 95 | 7 | —† | 7.4% | 1.3% | — | — | —† |
| UC Davis → | 35 | 15 | —† | 42.9% | 2.9% | — | — | —† |
What This Means
For School Admins
The full Reach Report for California High
A board- and LCAP-ready intelligence brief: your enrollment retention and college outcomes, benchmarked against your closest competitors, with a 5-year forecast, concrete steps to act on, and the rigor + outcomes story you can share with your families. Built from primary public data — prepared for you, not auto-generated.
- ✓Your UC Reach (12.5%) ranked head-to-head against your closest competitor schools
- ✓Your 5-year enrollment forecast (currently -3.2%/yr) with the revenue at stake
- ✓Student-retention benchmarking vs your county median — and the LCAP evidence to back your goals