Inspire School Of Arts And Sciences

· Butte County · Chico Unified · Public

Public Butte County 🏛 Chico Unified → ~85 seniors CDS 0461424…
📄 Shareable scorecard →

Top 10% ELA · SBAC (CA)

🧭 A parent's read

  • About 8 in 10 students read and write at grade level. On the state's own 11th-grade test, 81% met or exceeded the college-readiness bar — the top 10% of California high schools (statewide: 54%).
  • Most grads aim beyond the UC system. Seniors file only ~0.2 UC applications each — families here mostly target CSU, private, or out-of-state colleges, so judge this school on more than its UC numbers.
  • One question for any counselor: who should still test? Plenty of strong students skip the SAT/ACT now — but merit scholarships at dozens of colleges still key off scores. Ask how the school decides who should still sit for one.

Composed from this page's data — every claim is backed by a number in the sections below.

You've seen Inspire School Of Arts And Sciences. What are your child's real college odds? Check any college in 10 seconds — no email needed — then get the free Family Decision Report: Reach / Match / Likely + your real net price for every college on their list. Check odds →
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How Inspire School Of Arts And Sciences compares for families

What families should know about Inspire School Of Arts And Sciences.

  • Locally📘 #1 in Butte County on ELA proficiency — plus 2 more top-ranks.
  • vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Durham High School, Core Butte Charter School, Hamilton High and 2 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.

For Parents

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Get alerts when Inspire School Of Arts And Sciences's numbers change

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

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 8 in 10 students read and write at grade level — the top 10% of California high schools.
About 1 in 3 students do math at grade level — above the state norm.
ELA — met or exceeded
n = 81
81.5%
incl. 40.7% exceeded
★ Top 10% CA
+31.5 pts above Butte County median (50.0%) · CA median 54.3% · Top 10% statewide ≥ 79.3%
Math — met or exceeded
n = 80
33.8%
incl. 16.2% exceeded
+5.8 pts above Butte County median (28.0%) · 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

White 62% -4.7
Hispanic / Latino 21% +1.2
Two or more 12% +3.3
Asian 2%
Black / African Am. 1% -1.0
Pacific Islander 1%

Program subgroups

Students w/ disabilities 46% -8.3
Socioeconomically disadv. 15% -2.4

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.

26% of students are chronically absent — near the state norm of about 23%.
Chronic absent
26.4%
91 of 345 students

Absenteeism is up 12.5 pp since 2016-17. A rising absenteeism trend often precedes formal departure — worth investigating which subgroups are driving it.

Butte County median
25.9% · school is worse than 54% of 13 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)
454 (2018)299 (2026)
-34.1%
Grade 12 (graduating class)
92 (2018)75 (2026)
-18.5%

If this trend holds (-4.9%/yr, Total enrollment)

At per-pupil funding of $ / student:

Horizon Projected Total enrollment Change Funding impact / yr
1 yr (2027) ~284 -15 $0
3 yr (2029) ~257 -42 $0
5 yr (2031) ~232 -67 $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 Inspire School Of Arts And Sciences really compare on getting kids to college?

We've ranked it #1 of 6 most similar nearby schools on UC Reach. Unlock the full snapshot to see the head-to-head — who's ahead, by how much, and where it's heading.

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

Durham High School · Core Butte Charter School · Hamilton High · Paradise High School · Fair View High (continuation) · Hometech 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 Butte County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.

86% of students who start the year here finish it here.
Critical
Sharp demand downturn hidden by elite retention.

Inspire School Of Arts And Sciences's enrollment is shrinking far faster than Butte County (school -18.5% vs. county +19.8%). Stability of 86.4% means every family you keep is one fewer; the leverage is at recruitment, not retention. This is the case the high stability number alone would hide.

-18.5%  school enrollment (2018–2026)
+19.8%  Butte County baseline
-38.3pp  gap vs. county
86.4%  retention (county median 81.8%)
Enrollment — indexed to 100 at 2018
Stability rate by year (raw %)
Stability rate
86.4%
304 of 352 students

48 of 352 students who enrolled at Inspire School Of Arts And Sciences this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (13.6% non-stability). Mid-year transfers, dropouts, and other exits are all counted.

Butte County median
81.8% · school is in the 69th percentile of 13 HS
Statewide median
87.2% · in the 47th percentile of 1,689 HS

Stability by student group

White (234) 87.2%
Socio. disadvantaged (169) 84.6%
Hispanic / Latino (69) 84.1%
Students w/ disabilities (64) 82.8%
Two or more races (35) 88.6%

Nearest peer high schools

Durham High School 95.1% Core Butte Charter School 81.8% Hamilton High 96.2% Paradise High School 80.2% Fair View High (continuation) 30.3%

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 — Chico 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
$195.1M
+9.7% since FY2017
Per-pupil revenue
$16,379
11,911 students enrolled
Revenue mix
State: 48.2%
Local: 40.3%
Federal: 11.5%
Instruction share
59.6%
of current spending · $8,696/pupil
Long-term debt
$159.8M
+67.3% since FY2017
Total revenue by year ($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 Chico 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 2025
UC Reach Score
N/A
5-year trend
2019 · 11 2023 · 12
UC Application Reach Score
25
21 applications
In context: CA median 75 · Top 10% statewide ≥ 241 · higher than 5% of CA HS.
UC Admit Rate
N/A
None / 21 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 / 85 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.
A-G Completion
Only 4 in 10 of graduates finish the courses UC and CSU require — below the state norm. Worth asking how course access and planning work here.
41%
33 of 81 graduates · 2024-25 cohort
In context: CA median 55.9% · -15.2 pp vs. median · Butte Co. 28.7%.
Selective UC Reach (UCSD, UCSB, UCI, UCD)
N/A
Elite UC Reach (UCB + UCLA)
N/A
Senior Class Size
85
CDE grade 12 (exact)
Total School Enrollment
332
All grades · CDE Census Day

UC Outcomes Trend — 2018–2025

UC Admit Rate %
UC Reach Score (where available)
UC Admits (count, right axis)

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 Score Yield Avg GPA (App) Avg GPA (Adm)
UC Berkeley → Elite 5
UC Santa Barbara → Selective 6
UC Irvine → Selective 5
UC Davis → 5
= 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.
Compare with other schools → See Butte County rankings →

For School Admins

The full Reach Report for Inspire School Of Arts And Sciences

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 -4.9%/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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