Palm Springs High School
Palm Springs · Riverside County · Palm Springs Unified · Public
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Most similar nearby schools
Rancho Mirage High School → Cathedral City High School → Desert Hot Springs Hs → Shadow Hills High School → Palm Desert High School → Compare all similar →📋 At a glance
- 📚 13 AP courses offered — Elite
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🔢 4 calculus classes · 7 physics · 13 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: Top 3.7% of US high schools
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 8% by test-taker volume
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 97% (90th percentile nationally)
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 Palm Springs High School compares for families
Mid-pack college outcomes within California.
- ▸ Statewide21.4% UC Reach — right around the California median of 18.1%.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsBeats the peer median (21.4% UC Reach vs 14.7% median) across the 5 most similar nearby schools.
For Parents
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🎓 Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Elite — exceptional AP + advanced course breadth
Top 3.7% of US high schools
✅ Gifted/talented program
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 8% 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?
90th percentile nationally
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 17.9 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 (-2.1%/yr, Total enrollment)
At per-pupil funding of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Funding impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2027) | ~1,388 | -30 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2029) | ~1,329 | -89 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2031) | ~1,273 | -145 | $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.
Palm Springs High School — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot
Public · Palm Springs · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools
- ▸On UC Reach, Palm Springs High School sits in the middle of its similar-school group (ranked #3 of 11): 21% vs. a peer median of 15%.
- ▸Its UC Reach has held roughly steady since 2018.
- ▸Across the top-6 UC campuses, Palm Springs High School is admitting at roughly +9 percentage points above what its average applicant GPA (3.828) alone would predict (29% actual vs. 20% expected). That's a meaningful signal — it can reflect UC's track record with this school's graduates, students presenting strongly in UC's holistic review (essays, EC's, context), or institutional familiarity helping at the margin. The data can't distinguish which, but the pattern itself is real and worth understanding.
- ▸Senior-class enrollment is down 5% (400→381 from 2018 to 2026), tracking the peer-group median of -4%.
- ▸At its recent rate (-2.6%/yr), enrollment projects to ~1309 by 2029 — about 109 fewer students than today.
Enrollment projection
That's about 109 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palm Springs High School | Public | 1418 | 21.4% | -5% |
| Peer-group median | 14.7% | -4% | ||
| Rancho Mirage High School | Public | 1435 | 9.6% | -14% |
| Cathedral City High School | Public | 1267 | 25.1% | -28% |
| Desert Hot Springs Hs | Public | 1650 | 15.9% | -7% |
| Shadow Hills High School | Public | 1602 | 11.5% | -23% |
| Palm Desert High School | Public | 2107 | 29.1% | +7% |
| Indio High School | Public | 1925 | 17.2% | +18% |
| Yucca Valley High School | Public | 1149 | 4.1% | -18% |
| Banning High School | Public | 1152 | 6.3% | +4% |
| LA Quinta High School | Public | 2445 | 18.5% | -1% |
| San Jacinto Valley Academy | Public | 1718 | 13.5% | +119% |
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 Riverside County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.
Families who enroll at Palm Springs High School stay (87.8% stability — elite). But enrollment is dropping 1.8× the county rate (school -4.8% vs. county -2.7%). The audit question isn't why students leave — it's why fewer families are choosing to enroll in the first place. Chronic absenteeism is also at 31.8% (up +17.9 pts from 2016-17) — engagement and demand are both signaling decline.
193 of 1,580 students who enrolled at Palm Springs High School this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (12.2% 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 — Palm Springs 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.
Local: 30.7%
Federal: 16.9%
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 Palm Springs 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).
Palm Springs High School sent 290 applications to the six most selective University of California campuses and 29.0% were admitted, producing a UC Reach of 21.4% — 3.3 percentage points above the California median of 18.1%, higher than 59% of California high schools. The school produces 2.3 UCLA + UC Berkeley admits per 100 seniors.
+6.7 pp above peer median (14.7%) · Ranked #3 of 11 similar schools
18.1%
51.2%
21.4%
Higher than 59% of California high schools (978 ranked, ≥50 seniors)
Palm Springs High School's UC Reach of 21.4% is above the California median (18.1%). The top 10% of CA schools achieve 51.2% or higher.
For context, the elite tier (top 1%) clears 97.3% — a gap of 76 pp from where this school sits.
Overall, Palm Springs High School's UC Reach is higher than 59% of California high schools (978 ranked).
UC funnel — which kids are getting in at what GPA
Combining the school's applicant pool GPA, admit pool GPA, actual admit rate, and statewide CA admit rates by individual GPA band, we can read which GPA tiers tend to get in — and which don't.
| Campus | 4.00+ GPA | 3.70–3.99 GPA | 3.30–3.69 GPA | < 3.30 GPA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley | Real shot | Long odds | Filtered out | Filtered out |
| UCLA | Real shot | Long odds | Filtered out | Filtered out |
| UC San Diego | Strong shot | Moderate | Long odds | Filtered out |
| UC Santa Barbara | Strong shot | Real shot | Long odds | Filtered out |
| UC Irvine | Strong shot | Real shot | Long odds | Filtered out |
| UC Davis | Strong shot | Strong shot | Real shot | Filtered out |
The numbers behind it
| Campus | Applicant GPA | Admit GPA | Lift ⓘ | Admit rate | vs peer schools @ same GPA ⓘ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley (2024) | 3.91 | 4.19 | +0.28 | 15.6% | Peers +0.28 · matches |
| UCLA | 3.85 | 4.26 | +0.41 | 7.7% | Peers +0.36 · steeper |
| UC San Diego | 3.80 | 4.16 | +0.37 | 46.6% | Peers +0.37 · matches |
| UC Santa Barbara | 3.77 | 4.18 | +0.42 | 35.3% | Peers +0.36 · steeper |
| UC Irvine | 3.86 | 4.14 | +0.28 | 29.2% | Peers +0.30 · matches |
| UC Davis | 3.79 | 4.09 | +0.30 | 45.5% | Peers +0.31 · matches |
📊 Statewide CA admit rates by individual GPA band, 2025 (for reference)
| GPA band | UCB | UCLA | UCSD | UCSB | UCI | UCD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.00+ | 17.0% | 15.1% | 45.2% | 62.3% | 46.3% | 65.9% |
| 3.70–3.99 | 3.1% | 1.6% | 9.3% | 17.6% | 17.0% | 31.1% |
| 3.30–3.69 | 0.8% | 0.5% | 1.5% | 2.8% | 2.4% | 10.3% |
| 3.00–3.29 | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.4% | 0.3% | 1.9% |
| < 3.00 | 0.7% | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.7% |
Where Palm Springs High School sits vs. all California schools ⓘ
Overall, this school admits its UC applicants 9.0 points above what their GPAs predict (29.0% actual vs. 19.9% expected).
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 | 31 | 4 | —† | 12.9% | 1.0% | — | 3.89 | —† |
| UCLA → Elite | 65 | 5 | 5 | 7.7% | 1.3% | 100.0% | 3.85 | 4.26 |
| UC San Diego → Selective | 73 | 34 | 7 | 46.6% | 8.7% | 20.6% | 3.80 | 4.16 |
| UC Santa Barbara → Selective | 34 | 12 | —† | 35.3% | 3.1% | — | 3.77 | 4.18 |
| UC Irvine → Selective | 65 | 19 | 7 | 29.2% | 4.8% | 36.8% | 3.86 | 4.14 |
| UC Davis → | 22 | 10 | 3 | 45.5% | 2.5% | 30.0% | 3.79 | 4.09 |
What This Means
For School Admins
The full Reach Report for Palm Springs High School
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 (21.4%) ranked head-to-head against your closest competitor schools
- ✓Your 5-year enrollment forecast (currently -2.1%/yr) with the revenue at stake
- ✓Student-retention benchmarking vs your county median — and the LCAP evidence to back your goals