West Valley High School

Cottonwood · Shasta County · Hemet Unified · Public

Public Shasta County 🏛 Hemet Unified → ~446 seniors CDS 3367082…
📄 Shareable scorecard →

📚AP rigor: 78th percentile nationally 📖24 AP courses

📋 At a glance

Programs & features
  • 📚 24 AP courses offered — Elite
  • ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
  • 🔢 3 calculus classes · 1 physics · 9 chemistry
Academic signals
  • 🎓 AP rigor: 78th percentile nationally
  • 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 4% by test-taker volume
  • 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 92% (60th percentile nationally)

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

🎓 Where grads go

5.8% UC Reach — top-6 UC admits per 100 seniors in the Class of 2025. Counts each campus admit, so multi-admits count more than once.

UC admits by campus · Class of 2025

UCSD
9 admitted
4 enrolled
UCSB
10 admitted
UCI
4 admitted
UCD
3 admitted

Source: University of California Office of the President, Admissions by Source School. Full campus-by-campus breakdown below.

💡

How West Valley High School compares for families

Real college outcomes data available below.

  • Statewide5.8% UC Reach — 12.3 points below the California median of 18.1%.
  • vs Similar SchoolsTrails the peer median (5.8% UC Reach vs 10.9% 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
24
Math ✓
Students taking AP courses
266
≈14 per 100 students · uptake, not just offerings
Advanced math classes
9
3 calculus · 6 advanced
Lab science classes
10
1 physics · 9 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 4% by test-taker volume

50th 90th
SAT/ACT test-takers
2
11th-12th graders who took 1+ college admissions test
Test-taking intensity
0.1
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?

60th percentile nationally

50th 90th
4-year graduation rate
92%
Single-point estimate
4-year cohort size
365
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

High-poverty school

Title I Schoolwide eligible

90.1%
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)

≥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.

ELA — met or exceeded
n = 397
45.3%
incl. 17.1% exceeded
-10.1 pts vs. Shasta County median (55.4%) · CA median 54.3% · Top 10% statewide ≥ 79.3%
Math — met or exceeded
n = 397
21.4%
incl. 6.0% exceeded
-11.7 pts vs. Shasta County median (33.1%) · 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 72% +1.1
White 12%
Black / African Am. 10% -1.4
Two or more 4%
Filipino 1%
Pacific Islander 1%
Asian 1%

Program subgroups

Students w/ disabilities 89%
Socioeconomically disadv. 18% +1.2
English learners 11% -1.1
Homeless 2% -2.2

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.

Chronic absent
34.9%
690 of 1,977 students

Absenteeism is up 17.0 pp since 2016-17. A rising absenteeism trend often precedes formal departure — worth investigating which subgroups are driving it.

Shasta County median
25.2% · school is worse than 70% of 20 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)
1,755 (2018)1,854 (2026)
+5.6%
Grade 12 (graduating class)
396 (2018)417 (2026)
+5.3%

If this trend holds (+0.7%/yr, Total enrollment)

At per-pupil funding of $ / student:

Horizon Projected Total enrollment Change Funding impact / yr
1 yr (2027) ~1,866 +12 $0
3 yr (2029) ~1,892 +38 $0
5 yr (2031) ~1,917 +63 $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.

West Valley High School — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot

Public · Cottonwood · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools

  • On UC Reach, West Valley High School sits near the bottom of its similar-school group (ranked #10 of 11): 6% vs. a peer median of 11%.
  • West Valley High School's UC Reach has declined meaningfully from a peak of 16% in 2023 to 6% in 2025 — a 10-point drop that warrants attention. Multi-year UC Reach declines of this size often signal something specific (leadership change, comp-program shift, demographic move) rather than year-to-year noise. This is the kind of trajectory an Enrollment Trend Audit unpacks.
  • Senior-class enrollment is up 5% (396→417 from 2018 to 2026), outpacing the peer-group median of -3%.
  • Enrollment has been growing (+0.7%/yr); projects to ~1893 by 2029.

Enrollment projection

1854 students (2026)
~1893 projected (2029)
at +0.7%/yr

Your school vs. its 10 most similar nearby schools

School Type Size UC Reach Enroll. trend
West Valley High School Public 1854 5.8% +5%
Peer-group median 10.9% -3%
Tahquitz High School Public 1692 10.0% +4%
San Jacinto Valley Academy Public 1718 13.5% +119%
Hemet High School Public 2478 9.1% -1%
San Jacinto High School Public 2350 11.6% -5%
Santa Rosa Academy Public 1708 2.5% -9%
Heritage High Public 2396 14.0% -16%
Liberty High Public 2476 19.2% +34%
Perris High School Public 1985 10.3% -17%
Murrieta Mesa High School Public 2026 13.4% -12%
Vista Del Lago High School Public 1891 6.6% +10%

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 Shasta County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.

Action needed
Strong inside, weak at the gate.

Families who enroll at West Valley High School stay (81.5% stability — elite). But enrollment is dropping faster than Shasta County (school +5.3% vs. county +12.3%). 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 34.9% (up +17.0 pts from 2016-17) — engagement and demand are both signaling decline.

+5.3%  school enrollment (2018–2026)
+12.3%  Shasta County baseline
-7.0pp  gap vs. county
81.5%  retention (county median 79.1%)
Enrollment — indexed to 100 at 2018
Stability rate by year (raw %)
Stability rate
81.5%
1,670 of 2,049 students

379 of 2,049 students who enrolled at West Valley High School this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (18.5% non-stability). Mid-year transfers, dropouts, and other exits are all counted.

Shasta County median
79.1% · school is in the 65th percentile of 20 HS
Statewide median
87.2% · in the 32nd percentile of 1,688 HS

Stability by student group

Socio. disadvantaged (1,869) 81.1%
Hispanic / Latino (1,451) 83.3%
Students w/ disabilities (382) 81.4%
English learners (266) 75.9%
White (225) 80.0%
Black / African Am. (224) 71.4%

Nearest peer high schools

Tahquitz High School 81.9% San Jacinto Valley Academy 94.7% Hemet High School 84.1% San Jacinto High School 80.2% Santa Rosa Academy 89.8%

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 — Hemet 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
$405.4M
+18.5% since FY2017
Per-pupil revenue
$18,790
21,573 students enrolled
Revenue mix
State: 60.7%
Local: 25.6%
Federal: 13.7%
Instruction share
55.2%
of current spending · $8,385/pupil
Long-term debt
$239.2M
+12.4% since FY2017
Total revenue by year ($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 Hemet 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).

📊 Key takeaway · Class of 2025

West Valley High School sent 191 applications to the six most selective University of California campuses and 13.6% were admitted, producing a UC Reach of 5.8%12.3 percentage points below the California median of 18.1%, higher than 5% of California high schools..

University of California outcomes · Class of 2025
UC Reach
6%
26 admits / 446 seniors
-5.1 pp vs. peer median (10.9%) · Ranked #10 of 11 similar schools
5-year trend
2021 · 13.9% 2025 · 5.8%
Where this sits on the California curve
CA median
18.1%
Peer median
10.9%
Top 10%
51.2%
This school
5.8%
0%50%100%
CA median 18.1% Top 10% ≥ 51.2% This school 5.8%

Higher than 5% of California high schools (978 ranked, ≥50 seniors)

📊 What this number means

West Valley High School's UC Reach of 5.8% is below the California median (18.1%). The top 10% of CA schools achieve 51.2% or higher.

Overall, West Valley High School's UC Reach is higher than 5% of California high schools (978 ranked).

UC Application Reach
42.8%
191 applications
In context: CA median 74.9% · Top 10% statewide ≥ 241.0% · higher than 22% of CA HS.
UC Admit Rate
13.6%
26 / 191 applications
In context: CA median 26.1% · Top 10% statewide ≥ 40.5% · higher than 0% of CA HS.
UC Yield Rate
15.4%
4 enrolled of 26 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
0.9%
4 enrollees / 446 seniors
Enrollment Reach vs. Yield: Reach answers "of the whole senior class, what % 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
371:1
5.0 FTE counselors · 1,854 students
In context: CA median 338:1 · 33 more students per counselor · ASCA target 250:1.
A-G Completion
65%
269 of 415 graduates · 2024-25 cohort
In context: CA median 55.9% · +8.9 pp above · Shasta Co. 38.0%.
Selective UC Reach (UCSD, UCSB, UCI, UCD)
5.2
per 100 seniors · campus-level total
In context: CA median 15.4 · Top 10% statewide ≥ 41.5 · higher than 4% of CA HS.
Elite UC Reach (UCB + UCLA)
N/A
Senior Class Size
446
CDE grade 12 (exact)
Total School Enrollment
1,857
All grades · CDE Census Day
Economic Connectedness
0.88
36th percentile in CA · cross‑class friendships
Avg. Applicant GPA · top-6 UCs
3.65

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 West Valley 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) 3.83 4.17 +0.34 28.0% Peers +0.32 · matches
UCLA (2019) 3.92 4.22 +0.29 14.7% Peers +0.31 · matches
UC San Diego (2023) 3.73 4.14 +0.41 41.9% Peers +0.39 · matches
UC Santa Barbara (2024) 3.37 3.90 +0.54 80.0% Peers +0.61 · wider
UC Irvine (2023) 3.77 4.22 +0.46 11.3% Peers +0.37 · steeper
UC Davis (2024) 3.63 4.05 +0.42 55.6% Peers +0.36 · steeper
📊 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).

UC Outcomes Trend — 2018–2025

UC Admit Rate %
UC Reach % (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 Yield Avg GPA (App) Avg GPA (Adm)
UC Berkeley → Elite 20
UCLA → Elite 32
UC San Diego → Selective 58 9 4 15.5% 2.0% 44.4%
UC Santa Barbara → Selective 31 10 32.3% 2.2%
UC Irvine → Selective 37 4 10.8% 0.9%
UC Davis → 13 3 23.1% 0.7% 3.65
= 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: admit counts used here are campus-level totals. A student admitted to both UCLA and UCSD is counted twice. When UCOP unique-student data becomes available it will be loaded automatically and the labels will update.
Compare with other schools → See Shasta County rankings →

For School Admins

The full Reach Report for West Valley 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 (5.8%) ranked head-to-head against your closest competitor schools
  • Your 5-year enrollment forecast (currently 0.7%/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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