Diamond Technology Institute

Watsonville · Santa Cruz County · Pajaro Valley Unified · Public

Public Santa Cruz County 🏛 Pajaro Valley Unified → CDS 4469799…
📄 Shareable scorecard →

📘Top 5 ELA proficiency in Santa Cruz

📋 At a glance

Programs & features
  • ✅ Gifted & talented program
Academic signals
  • 🎓 AP rigor: Bottom 18% 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 Diamond Technology Institute compares for families

What families should know about Diamond Technology Institute.

  • Locally📘 Top 5 in Santa Cruz County on ELA proficiency.
  • vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Renaissance High Continuation, Delta Charter, Costanoa Continuation High and 2 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.

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
17
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

High-poverty school

Title I Schoolwide eligible

77.0%
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)

≥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.

About 2 in 3 students read and write at grade level — above the state norm.
Fewer than 1 in 10 students do math at grade level — below the state norm — worth asking what extra support looks like.
ELA — met or exceeded
n = 15
66.7%
incl. 26.7% exceeded
On the Santa Cruz County median (66.1%) · CA median 54.3% · Top 10% statewide ≥ 79.3%
Math — met or exceeded
n = 14
7.1%
incl. 0.0% exceeded
-27.1 pts vs. Santa Cruz County median (34.2%) · CA median 21.1% · Top 10% statewide ≥ 53.6%

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

Hispanic / Latino 94% +5.2
White 4% -1.5
Two or more 1% -1.3

Program subgroups

Students w/ disabilities 80% +5.1

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.

Kids show up: 16% are chronically absent versus about 23% statewide — engagement most schools would envy.
Chronic absent
16.1%
14 of 87 students

Absenteeism is down 15.3 pp since 2016-17. Engagement improving — a positive trajectory worth understanding and reinforcing.

Santa Cruz County median
18.8% · school is better than 64% of 14 HS
Statewide median
22.9%
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)
66 (2018)89 (2026)
+34.8%
Grade 12 (graduating class)
5 (2018)15 (2026)
+200.0%

If this trend holds (+3.7%/yr, Total enrollment)

At per-pupil funding of $ / student:

Horizon Projected Total enrollment Change Funding impact / yr
1 yr (2027) ~92 +3 $0
3 yr (2029) ~99 +10 $0
5 yr (2031) ~107 +18 $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.

How does Diamond Technology Institute really compare on getting kids to college?

Unlock a head-to-head snapshot of Diamond Technology Institute 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

Renaissance High Continuation · Delta Charter · Costanoa Continuation High · Alternative Family Education · Mt. Madonna High · Santa Cruz County Career Advancement Charter · +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 Santa Cruz County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.

93% of students who start the year here finish it here.
Healthy
Best in class — winning on demand and retention.

Diamond Technology Institute outperformed Santa Cruz County on enrollment (school +200.0% vs. county +3.1%) AND maintains 93.2% stability. Replicable model — worth documenting what's working.

+200.0%  school enrollment (2018–2026)
+3.1%  Santa Cruz County baseline
+196.9pp  gap vs. county
93.2%  retention (county median 90.8%)
Enrollment — indexed to 100 at 2018
Stability rate by year (raw %)
Stability rate
93.2%
82 of 88 students

6 of 88 students who enrolled at Diamond Technology Institute this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (6.8% non-stability). Mid-year transfers, dropouts, and other exits are all counted.

Santa Cruz County median
90.8% · school is in the 80th percentile of 15 HS
Statewide median
87.2% · in the 81st percentile of 1,689 HS

Stability by student group

Hispanic / Latino (82) 92.7%
Socio. disadvantaged (68) 92.6%

Nearest peer high schools

Renaissance High Continuation 28.3% Delta Charter 83.5% Costanoa Continuation High 44.0% Alternative Family Education 70.7% Mt. Madonna High 28.4%

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 — Pajaro Valley 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
$341.2M
+16.9% since FY2017
Per-pupil revenue
$18,204
18,743 students enrolled
Revenue mix
State: 54.9%
Local: 28.7%
Federal: 16.4%
Instruction share
52.9%
of current spending · $8,526/pupil
Long-term debt
$203.6M
+2.5% since FY2017
Total revenue by year ($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 Pajaro Valley 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).

University of California outcomes · Class of 2024
UC Reach Score
N/A
(class size est.)
UC Application Reach Score
N/A
None applications
UC Admit Rate
N/A
None / None applications
UC Yield Rate
N/A
None enrolled of None admitted
Yield vs. Enrollment Reach: Yield answers "of UC admits, what % chose UC?" — denominator is just the admits. A small admitted cohort can post a low yield even when the school sends a healthy share of its class to UC.
UC Enrollment Reach Score
N/A
None enrollees / None seniors
Enrollment Reach vs. Yield: Reach answers "of the whole senior class, what share ended up at UC?" — denominator is everyone. High Yield with low Enrollment Reach is common at elite privates: most admits matriculate, but the school sends most of its class to non-UC selective colleges.
Student-Counselor Ratio
Counseling here is unusually well-staffed — about 89 students per counselor, near what experts recommend.
89:1
1.0 FTE counselors · 89 students
In context: CA median 338:1 · 249 fewer students per counselor · ASCA target 250:1.
Selective UC Reach (UCSD, UCSB, UCI, UCD)
N/A
Elite UC Reach (UCB + UCLA)
N/A
Senior Class Size
N/A
Run CDE download to enable the Reach Score
Total School Enrollment
83
All grades · CDE Census Day

Campus Breakdown — 2024

Campus Applicants Admits Enrollees Admit Rate UC Reach Score Yield Avg GPA (App) Avg GPA (Adm)
UC Berkeley → Elite
UCLA → Elite
UC Irvine → Selective
UC Davis →
= UCOP-suppressed (count below 3 students, hidden for privacy — actual value is 0, 1, or 2, not necessarily zero). Campus-level totals may count one student admitted to multiple UC campuses more than once; Admit Volume metrics are not the same as UC Reach, which requires unique-student counts. See methodology →

What This Means

Note: the UC Reach Score sums campus-level admits across the top-six UC campuses, so a student admitted to both UCLA and UCSD is counted at each. It reflects competitive admit volume relative to class size — admit-events, not distinct students — which is why a Score can exceed 100.
Senior class size is estimated from CDE grade 12 enrollment data. Reach percentages should be interpreted as approximate.
Compare with other schools → See Santa Cruz County rankings →

For School Admins

The full Reach Report for Diamond Technology Institute

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 5-year enrollment forecast (currently 3.7%/yr) with the revenue at stake
  • Student-retention benchmarking vs your county median — and the LCAP evidence to back your goals
See a sample report →

For Parents

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