No UC admissions data on file for Carmel Valley High.

This school doesn't appear in UCOP's source-school records (it may send few or no applicants to UC). Its enrollment trend and similar-school comparison are still below.

Carmel Valley High

Carmel · Monterey County · Carmel Unified · Public

Public Monterey County Carmel Unified → CDS 2765987…
Shareable scorecard →

At a glance

Academic signals
  • AP rigor: Bottom 6% of US high schools
  • 4-yr grad rate: 75% in 2019 (Bottom 21% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)

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

How Carmel Valley High compares for families

What families should know about Carmel Valley High.

  • vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Community High (continuation), Central Bay High (continuation), Open Door Charter and 2 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
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California College-Going Rate

50% of the 2022-23 graduating class enrolled in college within a year.

The share of 2022-23 graduates who enrolled at a college anywhere in the U.S. within 12 months, per the National Student Clearinghouse match the California Department of Education publishes.

Within 12 months
50%
of 18 graduates

Give the same class four more months and 50% had enrolled — CDE publishes a 16-month window alongside the 12-month one, 9 students.

Where the 2022-23 class enrolled

In California — 9 students (50.0%)

University of California 0.0% 0
California State University 0.0% 0
California Community College 50.0% 9
California private college 0.0% 0

Out of state — 0 students (0.0%)

Out-of-state 4-year 0.0% 0
Out-of-state 2-year 0.0% 0

CDE puts each graduate in one bucket only — whichever kind of college they were enrolled in longest — so these add up to the rate above. That is a different count from the UC Reach Score on this page, which counts a student at every UC campus that admitted them.

Source: California Department of Education, College-Going Rate (DataQuest) ↗, cohort 2022-23, posted 17-Sep-2025. Data file: cgr12mo23.txt ↗ (and the 16-month file ↗). CDE builds the rate by matching California high school completers to National Student Clearinghouse enrollment records; we publish CDE’s aggregates and hold no student-level data.

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 21% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate

50th 90th
4-year graduation rate
75%
Range: 50–100%
4-year cohort size
14
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.

Federal Title I context

Title I Schoolwide eligible

≥40% FRPL — qualifies for Title I Schoolwide program

40.0%
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.

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

White 40% -21.9
Hispanic / Latino 40% +11.4
Two or more 20% +15.2

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.

71% of students miss 10%+ of school days — above the state's ~23%. Ask what the school is doing about engagement.
Chronic absent
70.8%
17 of 24 students

Absenteeism is up 9.3 pp since 2016-17. A rising absenteeism trend often precedes formal departure — worth investigating which subgroups are driving it.

Monterey County median
17.6% · school is worse than 95% of 21 HS
Statewide median
22.8%
Chronic absenteeism by year (raw %)

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

Total enrollment (9–12)
19 (2018)15 (2026)
-21.1%
Grade 12 (graduating class)
9 (2018)8 (2026)
-11.1%

How does Carmel Valley High really compare on getting kids to college?

Unlock a head-to-head snapshot of Carmel Valley High against its 10 most similar nearby schools — matched on size, location, type. See exactly where it stands on the college pipeline.

The full head-to-head table — every peer school's UC Reach, side by side.
Enrollment trend + 3-year projection — is this school growing or quietly shrinking?
The plain-English read on what it all means for your family.

Your similar-school group includes

Community High (continuation) · Central Bay High (continuation) · Open Door Charter · Central Coast High School · Pinnacles High School · Learning For Life Charter School · +4 more

Objective, government-grade data — no school pays us for placement. We'll email you the snapshot and a few alerts a year. Unsubscribe anytime.

Enrollment stability & demand — 2024-25

Two complementary signals: retention (do students stay once enrolled?) and demand (are families choosing the school?). Read against the Monterey County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.

28% of students who start the year finish it here — more churn than most CA schools. Ask what's behind the turnover.
Critical
Compounding decline on both vectors.

Enrollment -11.1% vs. county +10.4% AND stability (28.0%) below the county median. Recruitment and retention both under pressure — likely a foundational rather than tactical problem. Chronic absenteeism is also at 70.8% (up +9.3 pts from 2016-17) — engagement and demand are both signaling decline.

-11.1%  senior class, grade 12 (2018–2026)
+10.4%  Monterey County baseline
-21.5pp  gap vs. county
28.0%  retention (county median 89.1%)
Senior class (grade 12) — indexed to 100 at 2018
Stability rate by year (raw %)
Stability rate
28.0%
7 of 25 students

18 of 25 students who enrolled at Carmel Valley High this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (72.0% non-stability). Mid-year transfers, dropouts, and other exits are all counted.

Monterey County median
89.1% · school is in the 0th percentile of 21 HS
Statewide median
87.3% · in the 5th percentile of 1,734 HS

Nearest peer high schools

Community High (continuation) 40.0% Central Bay High (continuation) 44.2% Open Door Charter 21.2% Central Coast High School 42.9% Pinnacles High School 36.4%

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 — Carmel Unified (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.

Total revenue
$74.6M
+16.5% since FY2017
Per-pupil revenue
$31,954
2,335 students enrolled
Revenue mix
State: 10.5%
Local: 84.5%
Federal: 5.0%
Instruction share
53.9%
of current spending · $15,558/pupil
Long-term debt
$20.8M
-33.3% since FY2017
Total revenue by year ($M)
Total expenditure by year ($M)

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 Carmel Unified 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).

For School Admins

The full Reach Report for Carmel Valley 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.

  • Student-retention benchmarking vs your county median — and the LCAP evidence to back your goals
See a sample report →

Related reading

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Behind the data · August 24, 2026

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UC testing review · August 25, 2026

All stories from the data →

For Parents

Researching colleges for your kid at Carmel Valley High?

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What families ask next