No UC admissions data on file for Santa Cruz County Career Advancement Charter.
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.
Santa Cruz County Career Advancement Charter
· Santa Cruz County · Santa Cruz County Office of Education · Public
📄 Shareable scorecard →Compare with peers
Most similar nearby schools
Anzar High School → Dr. Tj Owens Gilroy Early College Academy → Ceiba College Preparatory Academy → El Puente High School → Diamond Technology Institute → Compare all similar →📋 At a glance
- 🎓 AP rigor: Bottom 18% of US high schools
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 12% (Bottom 2% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Santa Cruz County Career Advancement Charter compares for families
What families should know about Santa Cruz County Career Advancement Charter.
- ▸ Locally🎯 #1 in Santa Cruz County on Attendance (lowest chronic absenteeism) — plus 1 more top-rank.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Anzar High School, Dr. Tj Owens Gilroy Early College Academy, Ceiba College Preparatory Academy and 2 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
For Parents
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Get an email when Santa Cruz County Career Advancement Charter's numbers change — new admissions results, enrollment shifts, test scores. A few updates a year, no spam.
SAT / ACT participation
CRDC federal data · 2020-21Source: 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 2% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate
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
Lower-need school
Not Title I eligible (FRPL < 25%)
<25% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. Well below the Title I threshold; expect a higher-income student body on average.
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
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.
Low and stable absenteeism — students are engaged and showing up. The leading indicator is healthy.
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 (+16.1%/yr, Total enrollment)
At per-pupil funding of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Funding impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2027) | ~273 | +38 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2029) | ~368 | +133 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2031) | ~497 | +262 | $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.
Santa Cruz County Career Advancement Charter — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot
Public · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools
- ▸Senior-class enrollment is up 390% (48→235 from 2018 to 2026), outpacing the peer-group median of -30%.
- ▸Enrollment has been growing (+22.0%/yr); projects to ~426 by 2029.
Enrollment projection
Your school vs. its 10 most similar nearby schools
| School | Type | Size | UC Reach | Enroll. trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Cruz County Career Advancement Charter | Public | 235 | — | +390% |
| Peer-group median | 4.5% | -30% | ||
| Anzar High School | Public | 260 | 4.5% | -41% |
| Dr. Tj Owens Gilroy Early College Academy | Public | 308 | — | +22% |
| Ceiba College Preparatory Academy | Public | 494 | — | -26% |
| El Puente High School | Public | 243 | — | -45% |
| Diamond Technology Institute | Public | 89 | — | +200% |
| Mt. Madonna High | Public | 141 | — | -43% |
| Mount Toro High | Public | 197 | — | +9% |
| Monterey County Home Charter | Public | 260 | — | -32% |
| Delta Charter | Public | 114 | — | -29% |
| Renaissance High Continuation | Public | 82 | — | -32% |
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 Santa Cruz County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.
Enrollment growth is beating Santa Cruz County (+389.6% vs. +3.1%), but 336 of 420 students didn't maintain continuous enrollment. Why are families leaving once enrolled?
336 of 420 students who enrolled at Santa Cruz County Career Advancement Charter this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (80.0% 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 — Santa Cruz County Office of Education (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: 35.2%
Federal: 18.1%
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 Santa Cruz County Office of Education 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 Santa Cruz County Career Advancement Charter
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 16.1%/yr) with the revenue at stake
- ✓Student-retention benchmarking vs your county median — and the LCAP evidence to back your goals