River Valley Charter School
Lakeside · San Diego County · Public
Compare with peers
Most similar nearby schools
Idea Center High School → City Heights Preparatory Charter → Greater San Diego Academy → Mountain Valley Academy → Jcs Manzanita → Compare all similar →🧭 A parent's read
- About 8 in 10 students read and write at grade level. On the state's own 11th-grade test, 86% met or exceeded the college-readiness bar — the top 10% of California high schools (statewide: 54%).
- Kids actually show up. Only 3% of students are chronically absent, versus about 23% statewide — day-to-day engagement most schools would envy.
- 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.
🎓 Where grads go — and what it costs & pays
UC admits by campus · Class of 2025
Getting in is step one. The cost above is the average family's net price — yours depends on your income — and your child's odds depend on their GPA + scores. See your family's real numbers at these campuses:
🎯 Get my child's odds + our real net price →Sources: UC Office of the President (admits); IPEDS net price + College Scorecard 10-yr earnings (cost & payoff). Full campus-by-campus breakdown below.
How River Valley Charter School compares for families
Real college outcomes data available below.
- ▸ StatewideUC Reach Score of 11 — 7 points below the California median of 18.
- ▸ Locally🎯 Top 5% in California on Attendance (lowest chronic absenteeism) — plus 5 more top-ranks.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Idea Center High School, City Heights Preparatory Charter, Greater San Diego Academy 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.
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 down 3.2 pp since 2016-17. Engagement improving — a positive trajectory worth understanding and reinforcing.
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 (+1.5%/yr, Total enrollment)
At per-pupil funding of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Funding impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2027) | ~173 | +3 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2029) | ~178 | +8 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2031) | ~183 | +13 | $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 River Valley Charter School really compare on getting kids to college?
Unlock a head-to-head snapshot of River Valley Charter School against its 10 most similar nearby schools — matched on size, location, type. See exactly where it stands on the college pipeline.
Your similar-school group includes
Idea Center High School · City Heights Preparatory Charter · Greater San Diego Academy · Mountain Valley Academy · Jcs Manzanita · Altus Schools East County · +4 more
Enrollment stability & demand — 2024-25
Two complementary signals: retention (do students stay once enrolled?) and demand (are families choosing the school?). Read against the San Diego County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.
River Valley Charter School is shrinking (-9.8%) but San Diego County is shrinking faster (-12.5%), so River Valley Charter School is winning roughly 2.7 pp of relative market share. Combined with 90.7% stability (county median 88.5%), this reflects a school that families actively chose during a market contraction. Replicable model — worth documenting what's working.
16 of 172 students who enrolled at River Valley Charter School this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (9.3% 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.
River Valley Charter School sent 6 applications to the six most selective University of California campuses and 66.7% were admitted, producing a UC Reach Score of 11 — 7 points below the California median of 18, higher than 22% of California high schools..
18
51
11
Higher than 22% of California high schools (980 ranked, ≥50 seniors)
River Valley Charter School's UC Reach Score of 11 is below the California median (18). The top 10% of CA schools achieve 51 or higher.
Overall, River Valley Charter School's UC Reach is higher than 22% of California high schools (980 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 San Diego | Strong shot | Moderate | 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 San Diego (2022) | 4.36 | 4.38 | +0.02 | 41.7% | — |
| UC Davis (2020) | 4.05 | 4.18 | +0.14 | 66.7% | Peers +0.19 · wider |
📊 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% |
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 Score | Yield | Avg GPA (App) | Avg GPA (Adm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Davis → | 6 | 4 | 3 | 66.7% | 11 | 75.0% | 4.35 | —† |
What This Means
For School Admins
The full Reach Report for River Valley Charter 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 Score (11) ranked head-to-head against your closest competitor schools
- ✓Your 5-year enrollment forecast (currently 1.5%/yr) with the revenue at stake
- ✓Student-retention benchmarking vs your county median — and the LCAP evidence to back your goals