Tulare Western High School

Tulare · Tulare County · Tulare Joint Union High · Public

Public Tulare County 🏛 Tulare Joint Union High → ~483 seniors CDS 5472249…
📄 Shareable scorecard →

📚AP rigor: 78th percentile nationally 📖9 AP courses 🎓97% 4-yr grad rate 📘Top 6 ELA proficiency in Tulare 🎯Top 7 Attendance (lowest chronic absenteeism) in Tulare

🧭 A parent's read

  • About 2 in 3 students read and write at grade level. On the state's own 11th-grade test, 65% met or exceeded the college-readiness bar — well above the state as a whole (statewide: 54%).
  • And it's a rising stock. UC admissions per senior have climbed three years running — the trend line, not just the snapshot, is moving the right way.
  • Elite admits are rare — here and everywhere. Berkeley and UCLA admitted 6 of this class's 192 UC applications. The strong middle campuses — San Diego, Santa Barbara, Irvine, Davis — are where most real UC outcomes happen.
  • Kids actually show up. Only 12% of students are chronically absent, versus about 23% statewide — day-to-day engagement most schools would envy.
  • Worth asking about on a tour: counselor load. One counselor serves about 312 students here — above the 250-to-1 level counseling experts recommend. Ask how junior-year college advising actually gets covered.

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

📋 At a glance

Programs & features
  • 📚 9 AP courses offered — Elite
  • ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
  • 🔢 2 calculus classes · 9 physics · 26 chemistry
Academic signals
  • 🎓 AP rigor: 78th percentile nationally
  • 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 6% by test-taker volume
  • 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 97% (90th percentile nationally)

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

🎓 Where grads go — and what it costs & pays

UC Reach Score
15
Below the CA median below the state median
Top-6 UC admits per 100 seniors in the Class of 2025 — counts each campus admit, so a student admitted to several UCs counts more than once (which is why a strong school can score over 100).

UC admits by campus · Class of 2025

UCLA
6 admitted
Net $12,548/yr avg
Grads earn $82,511 @10yr
UCSD
18 admitted
Net $12,470/yr avg
Grads earn $84,943 @10yr
UCSB
17 admitted
4 enrolled
Net $16,109/yr avg
Grads earn $74,915 @10yr
UCI
19 admitted
3 enrolled
Net $14,251/yr avg
Grads earn $80,735 @10yr
UCD
11 admitted
Net $14,741/yr avg
Grads earn $80,838 @10yr

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.

You've seen Tulare Western High School. 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 →
💡

How Tulare Western High School compares for families

Mid-pack college outcomes within California.

  • StatewideUC Reach Score of 15 — right around the California median of 18.
  • Locally📘 Top 6 in Tulare County on ELA proficiency — plus 1 more top-rank.
  • vs Similar SchoolsBeats the peer median (UC Reach Score 15 vs a 11 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

78th percentile nationally

50th 90th ↑ this school
Less rigorMore rigorMost rigor
AP courses offered
9
Math ✓ · Science ✓
Students taking AP courses
317
≈16 per 100 students · uptake, not just offerings
Advanced math classes
13
2 calculus · 11 advanced
Lab science classes
35
9 physics · 26 chemistry
Other rigor signals
✅ Dual-enrollment 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 · 2020-21

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
0.2
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.

🎓 4-year graduation rate · federal EDFacts

What % of students graduate on time?

90th percentile nationally

50th 90th
4-year graduation rate
97%
Single-point estimate
4-year cohort size
467
Students in the 9th-grade entry class tracked over 4 years
Compared against
17,988
US high schools reporting 4-year ACGR

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

Title I Schoolwide eligible

≥40% FRPL — qualifies for Title I Schoolwide program

72.7%
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.

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 2 in 3 students read and write at grade level — above the state norm.
About 1 in 4 students do math at grade level — above the state norm.
ELA — met or exceeded
n = 391
64.7%
incl. 27.4% exceeded
+7.6 pts above Tulare County median (57.1%) · CA median 54.3% · Top 10% statewide ≥ 79.3%
Math — met or exceeded
n = 392
27.0%
incl. 10.2% exceeded
+7.8 pts above Tulare County median (19.2%) · 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

Hispanic / Latino 81% +1.6
White 12% -1.7
Asian 3%
Not reported 2%
Black / African Am. 1%
Two or more 1%

Program subgroups

Students w/ disabilities 79% -3.6
English learners 12% +2.7
Socioeconomically disadv. 9%

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.

Kids show up: 12% are chronically absent versus about 23% statewide — engagement most schools would envy.
Chronic absent
12.4%
246 of 1,986 students

Absenteeism is up 6.1 pp since 2016-17. A rising absenteeism trend often precedes formal departure — worth investigating which subgroups are driving it.

Tulare County median
17.1% · school is better than 84% of 31 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)
2,023 (2018)1,870 (2026)
-7.6%
Grade 12 (graduating class)
493 (2018)398 (2026)
-19.3%

If this trend holds (-1.2%/yr, Total enrollment)

At per-pupil funding of $ / student:

Horizon Projected Total enrollment Change Funding impact / yr
1 yr (2027) ~1,848 -22 $0
3 yr (2029) ~1,806 -64 $0
5 yr (2031) ~1,764 -106 $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 Tulare Western High School really compare on getting kids to college?

We've ranked it #2 of 10 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

Tulare Union High School · El Diamante High School · Mission Oak High School · Mt. Whitney High · Golden West High School · Redwood 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 Tulare 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.
Critical
Sharp demand downturn hidden by elite retention.

Tulare Western High School's enrollment is shrinking 8.8× the county rate (school -19.3% vs. county +2.2%). Stability of 89.3% 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.

-19.3%  school enrollment (2018–2026)
+2.2%  Tulare County baseline
-21.5pp  gap vs. county
89.3%  retention (county median 85.8%)
Enrollment — indexed to 100 at 2018
Stability rate by year (raw %)
Stability rate
89.3%
1,806 of 2,022 students

216 of 2,022 students who enrolled at Tulare Western High School this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (10.7% non-stability). Mid-year transfers, dropouts, and other exits are all counted.

Tulare County median
85.8% · school is in the 71st percentile of 31 HS
Statewide median
87.2% · in the 61st percentile of 1,689 HS

Stability by student group

Hispanic / Latino (1,638) 88.8%
Socio. disadvantaged (1,594) 88.1%
English learners (252) 79.0%
White (237) 92.4%
Students w/ disabilities (181) 86.7%
Asian (49) 91.8%

Nearest peer high schools

Tulare Union High School 86.8% El Diamante High School 85.8% Mission Oak High School 90.8% Mt. Whitney High 82.9% Golden West High School 84.9%

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 — Tulare Joint Union High (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
$105.3M
+22.5% since FY2017
Per-pupil revenue
$18,467
5,700 students enrolled
Revenue mix
State: 64.8%
Local: 22.8%
Federal: 12.4%
Instruction share
54.8%
of current spending · $8,095/pupil
Long-term debt
$45.7M
-11.6% since FY2017
Total revenue by year ($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 Tulare Joint Union High 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).

📊 Key takeaway · Class of 2025

Tulare Western High School sent 192 applications to the six most selective University of California campuses and 37.0% were admitted, producing a UC Reach Score of 153 points below the California median of 18, higher than 40% of California high schools. The school produces 1.2 UCLA + UC Berkeley admits per 100 seniors.

University of California outcomes · Class of 2025
UC Reach Score
15
Below the CA median Top 60% of CA high schools
71 admits / 483 seniors
+3 pts above peer median (11) · Ranked #2 of 10 similar schools
5-year trend
2021 · 8 2025 · 15
Where this sits on the California curve
CA median
18
Peer median
11
Top 10%
51
This school
15
050100
CA median 18 Top 10% ≥ 51 This school 15

Higher than 40% of California high schools (980 ranked, ≥50 seniors)

📊 What this number means

Tulare Western High School's UC Reach Score of 15 is below the California median (18). The top 10% of CA schools achieve 51 or higher.

Overall, Tulare Western High School's UC Reach is higher than 40% of California high schools (980 ranked).

UC Application Reach Score
40
192 applications
In context: CA median 75 · Top 10% statewide ≥ 241 · higher than 19% of CA HS.
UC Admit Rate
37.0%
71 / 192 applications
In context: CA median 26.1% · Top 10% statewide ≥ 40.4% · higher than 85% of CA HS.
UC Yield Rate
9.9%
7 enrolled of 71 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
1
7 enrollees / 483 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.
Student-Counselor Ratio
About 312 students per counselor — typical for California, though well above the 250 experts recommend.
312:1
6.0 FTE counselors · 1,870 students
In context: CA median 338:1 · ASCA target 250:1.
A-G Completion
2 in 3 of graduates finish the UC/CSU course requirements — about the state norm.
65%
302 of 466 graduates · 2024-25 cohort
In context: CA median 55.9% · +8.9 pp above · Tulare Co. 42.2%.
Selective UC Reach (UCSD, UCSB, UCI, UCD)
12.4
per 100 seniors · campus-level total
In context: CA median 15.5 · Top 10% statewide ≥ 41.5 · higher than 38% of CA HS.
Elite UC Reach (UCB + UCLA)
1.2
per 100 seniors · campus-level total
In context: CA median 3.3 · Top 10% statewide ≥ 9.7 · higher than 9% of CA HS.
Senior Class Size
483
CDE grade 12 (exact)
Total School Enrollment
1,927
All grades · CDE Census Day
Economic Connectedness
0.66
15th percentile in CA · cross‑class friendships
Avg. Applicant GPA · top-6 UCs
3.90
Avg. Admitted GPA · top-6 UCs
4.18

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.

🎯 Who's actually getting into UC from Tulare Western High School
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
Strong shot = ≥30% statewide admit rate at this band · Real shot = 10–29% · Moderate = 5–9% · Long odds = 1–4% · Filtered out = under 1%. Tiers map this school's likely outcomes by GPA tier using statewide CA admit rates from UCOP 2025.

The numbers behind it

Campus Applicant GPA Admit GPA Lift Admit rate vs peer schools @ same GPA
UC Berkeley (2023) 3.82 4.10 +0.28 24.0% Peers +0.33 · wider
UCLA 3.93 4.27 +0.34 17.6% Peers +0.31 · matches
UC San Diego 3.85 4.15 +0.30 54.5% Peers +0.34 · wider
UC Santa Barbara 3.89 4.21 +0.32 63.0% Peers +0.32 · matches
UC Irvine 3.96 4.17 +0.20 50.0% Peers +0.24 · wider
UC Davis 3.79 4.14 +0.34 33.3% 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%
How we infer the tier labels: Each tier comes from the statewide CA admit rate at that GPA band at that UC. The "vs peers" column compares this school's lift (admit GPA − applicant GPA) to the average lift at ~100–300 other CA schools with similar applicant pool GPA. What this isn't: a guarantee. UC comprehensive review weighs essays, course rigor, demographics, and context-of-opportunity beyond GPA. A 3.9 with strong context can land an admit; a 4.0 with weak essays can be denied. Use as a baseline expectation, not a verdict. Per-campus year is shown when it differs from the headline year (UCOP doesn't always publish admit-GPA for every campus every year).

Where Tulare Western High School sits vs. all California schools

Overall, this school admits its UC applicants 19.7 points above what their GPAs predict (43.0% actual vs. 23.4% expected).

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 27 3.98
UCLA → Elite 34 6 17.6% 1 3.93 4.27
UC San Diego → Selective 33 18 54.5% 4 3.85 4.15
UC Santa Barbara → Selective 27 17 4 63.0% 4 23.5% 3.89 4.21
UC Irvine → Selective 38 19 3 50.0% 4 15.8% 3.96 4.17
UC Davis → 33 11 33.3% 2 3.79 4.14
= 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

A large share of the class applies to UC, so the admit rate runs lower than the application volume alone might suggest — expected when many students apply broadly, including to reach campuses. UC Reach (which credits every admit relative to the class) is the truer read of how the class fares: a strong Reach alongside a moderate admit rate is healthy, not a contradiction.
Fewer than 15% of seniors are earning UC admission. This may reflect a high non-UC college-going rate, significant A-G completion gaps, or an early-stage UC pipeline. A deeper review of A-G readiness and counseling capacity is warranted.
Students are earning UC admission but enrolling elsewhere at a notable rate. This may reflect competition from private colleges, out-of-state flagships, cost considerations, or UC campus fit. Student outcome surveys can clarify.
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 Tulare County rankings →

For School Admins

The full Reach Report for Tulare Western 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 Score (15) ranked head-to-head against your closest competitor schools
  • Your 5-year enrollment forecast (currently -1.2%/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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