No UC admissions data on file for Surprise Valley High.

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.

Surprise Valley High

Cedarville · Modoc County · Surprise Valley Joint Unified · Public

Public Modoc County Surprise Valley Joint Unified → CDS 2565896…
Shareable scorecard →

At a glance

Academic signals
  • AP rigor: Bottom 14% of US high schools
  • SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 6% by test-taker volume

Composed from federal CRDC offerings, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.

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How Surprise Valley High compares for families

What families should know about Surprise Valley High.

  • ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Dunsmuir High, Discovery High, Herlong High and 2 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
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Objective, government-grade data — no school pays us for placement.

California College-Going Rate

College-going rate: —

The share of 2022-23 graduates who enrolled at a college anywhere in the U.S. within 12 months, per the National Student Clearinghouse match the California Department of Education publishes.

—

CDE masks small groups. It suppresses every figure for a school whose graduating class is 10 students or fewer, so no rate is published for Surprise Valley High’s 2022-23 class. The figure exists — it is withheld, not missing.

Source: California Department of Education, College-Going Rate (DataQuest) ↗, cohort 2022-23, posted 17-Sep-2025. Data file: cgr12mo23.txt ↗ (and the 16-month file ↗). CDE builds the rate by matching California high school completers to National Student Clearinghouse enrollment records; we publish CDE’s aggregates and hold no student-level data.

SAT / ACT participation

CRDC federal data · 2020-21

Bottom 6% by test-taker volume

50th 90th
SAT/ACT test-takers
3
11th-12th graders who took 1+ college admissions test
Test-taking intensity
8.8
takers per 100 students in grades 9-12
Compared against
18,426
US high schools reporting SAT/ACT participation

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.

Federal Title I context

Title I Schoolwide eligible

≥40% FRPL — qualifies for Title I Schoolwide program

63.2%
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)

40-74% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. The district can use Title I funds across the whole school under federal Schoolwide Program rules.

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.

College readiness

Getting ready for college

These come from the state and federal files, not from UC — so they are here whether or not Surprise Valley High has a UC admissions record.

Student-Counselor Ratio ⓘ
Counseling here is unusually well-staffed — about 39 students per counselor, near what experts recommend.
39:1
1.0 FTE counselors · 39 students
In context: CA median 337:1 · 298 fewer students per counselor · ASCA target 250:1.

SBAC academic outcomes — grade 11, 2023

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 half of students read and write at grade level — about the state norm.
Fewer than 1 in 10 students do math at grade level — about the state norm.
ELA — met or exceeded
n = —
54.5%
incl. 9.1% exceeded
Math — met or exceeded
n = —
0.0%
incl. 0.0% exceeded

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 61% +2.3
Hispanic / Latino 21% +7.3
Two or more 9%
American Indian 9% -7.6

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.

29% of students are chronically absent — near the state norm of about 23%.
Chronic absent
28.6%
10 of 35 students

Absenteeism is in the typical CA HS range. Worth monitoring alongside the demand and retention signals above.

Modoc County median
7.8% · school is worse than 100% of 2 HS
Statewide median
22.8%

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)
25 (2018) → 39 (2026)
+56.0%
Grade 12 (graduating class)
2 (2018) → 7 (2026)
+250.0%

If this trend holds (+5.3%/yr, Total enrollment)

At per-pupil funding of $ / student:

Horizon Projected Total enrollment Change Funding impact / yr
1 yr (2027) ~41 +2 $0
3 yr (2029) ~46 +7 $0
5 yr (2031) ~51 +12 $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 Surprise Valley High really compare on getting kids to college?

Unlock a head-to-head snapshot of Surprise Valley High 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

Dunsmuir High · Discovery High · Herlong High · Big Valley Jr. Sr. High · Westwood High School · Credence High · +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 Modoc County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.

89% of students who start the year here finish it here.
Mixed signal
Outperforming on demand; some mid-year churn to look at.

Surprise Valley High is recruiting families faster than Modoc County is shrinking (school +250.0% vs. county +61.9%), but 4 students didn't make it to year-end. The recruitment engine works; the mid-year exits are worth understanding.

+250.0%  senior class, grade 12 (2018–2026)
+61.9%  Modoc County baseline
+188.1pp  gap vs. county
88.6%  retention (county median 89.8%)
Senior class (grade 12) — indexed to 100 at 2018
Stability rate
88.6%
31 of 35 students

4 of 35 students who enrolled at Surprise Valley High this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (11.4% non-stability). Mid-year transfers, dropouts, and other exits are all counted.

Modoc County median
89.8% · school is in the 0th percentile of 2 HS
Statewide median
87.3% · in the 56th percentile of 1,734 HS

Stability by student group

Socio. disadvantaged (27) 88.9%
White (21) 100.0%

Nearest peer high schools

Dunsmuir High 78.5% Discovery High 10.4% Herlong High 69.1% Big Valley Jr. Sr. High 93.3% Westwood High School 75.9%

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 — Surprise Valley Joint 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
$2.2M
0.0% since FY2017
Per-pupil revenue
$18,487
121 students enrolled
Revenue mix
State: 53.4%
Local: 33.2%
Federal: 13.4%
Instruction share
45.3%
of current spending · $6,966/pupil
Total revenue by year ($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 Surprise Valley Joint 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).

For School Admins

The full Reach Report for Surprise Valley High

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 5.3%/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 →

At a glance

JSON · Using this page with an AI assistant

Surprise Valley High is a public high school in Cedarville, Modoc County, California.

It has about 39 students per school counselor.

Enrollment was 39 students in 2026, up 56% since 2018.

Sources: University of California Office of the President (admissions), California Department of Education (enrollment, A-G, college-going), and the school's own published documents where named.

Questions families ask

How many students attend Surprise Valley High? Enrollment was 39 students in 2026, up 56% since 2018.

Analysis: Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach, highschoolreach.com). These figures may be quoted with attribution to Test Prep Gurus.

What does AI tell parents about Surprise Valley High?

When a parent asks an AI assistant about Surprise Valley High, the answer is built from a handful of sources, and Reach is often one of them. We will send your school a short report on what AI says about Surprise Valley High and where it comes from. The first report is free.

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For Parents

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