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River Valley Charter

Lakeside · CA · River Valley Charter District · Public charter · K-12 combined

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📋 At a glance

Programs & features
  • 📚 2 AP courses offered — Moderate
  • ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
Academic signals
  • 🎓 AP rigor: Bottom 47% of US high schools
  • 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 12% by test-taker volume
  • 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 84% (Bottom 33% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)

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

💡

How River Valley Charter compares for families

Solid mid-tier academic profile.

  • LocallyCA trails the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (−4 points). Stronger local schools matter even more.
  • vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: El Capitan High, Santana High, Bostonia Global and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.

For Parents

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🎓 Academic rigor

AP + advanced-course offerings

Moderate — some AP / advanced course access

Bottom 47% of US high schools

50th 90th ↑ this school
Less rigorMore rigorMost rigor
AP courses offered
2
Subject breadth not reported
Advanced math classes
2
0 calculus · 2 advanced
Lab science classes
7
3 physics · 4 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 12% by test-taker volume

50th 90th
SAT/ACT test-takers
8
11th-12th graders who took 1+ college admissions test
Test-taking intensity
4.9
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?

Bottom 33% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate

50th 90th
4-year graduation rate
84%
Range: 80–89%
4-year cohort size
55
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

Lower-need school

Not Title I eligible (FRPL < 25%)

20.8%
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)

<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.

Counselor capacity

Student : Counselor
231:1
Below the ASCA 250:1 recommendation — strong capacity for college planning, course selection, and student supports.
Counselor FTE
1.0
Full-time-equivalent school counselors on staff.
Teacher FTE
14
Full-time-equivalent classroom teachers.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020-2021. Counselor ratio = the school's most recent total enrollment ÷ counselor FTE. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends a 250:1 maximum; the US national median across schools with on-staff counselors is roughly 430:1.

Enrollment trend & projection

Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).

If the recent trend holds…

At its recent rate of -0.3%/year, projecting from 2024's 231 students:

2025
230
2027
229
2029
228

≈ 3 fewer students by 2029 — a real revenue/relevance risk worth getting ahead of.

An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.

Nearby high schools — the local competition

The closest high schools families here also consider, and where their enrollment is heading.

SchoolTypeMilesHS enrollmentTrend
El Capitan High
Lakeside
Public 1.6 1,810 +0.1%
Santana High
Santee
Public 1.8 1,620 -7.6%
Bostonia Global
El Cajon
Public · charter 3.1 262 +104.7%
Chaparral High
El Cajon
Public 3.5 45
MERIT Academy
El Cajon
Public 3.5 68 +1.5%
IDEA Center
El Cajon
Public 3.5 127 -13.0%
Altus Schools East County
El Cajon
Public · charter 3.5 257 +0.0%
Diego Valley East Public Charter
El Cajon
Public · charter 3.6 408 +13.6%

For Parents

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