Dana Hills High
Dana Point · CA · Capistrano Unified · Public
📋 At a glance
- 📚 19 AP courses offered — Elite
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🔢 2 calculus classes · 3 physics · 11 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 90th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: 72th percentile by test-taker volume
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 96% (82th percentile nationally)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Dana Hills High compares for families
Standout academic depth by national standards.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor in the top 10% nationally with 19 AP courses.
- ▸ LocallyCA trails the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (−4 points). Stronger local schools matter even more.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: California Preparatory Academy, College and Career Advantage, Capistrano Valley Christian Schools and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
For Parents
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🎓 Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Elite — exceptional AP + advanced course breadth
90th percentile nationally
✅ Gifted/talented 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 · 2020-2172th percentile by test-taker volume
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?
82th percentile nationally
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.
👩🏫 Teacher workforce · federal CRDC
Teacher experience & reliability
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2017-18 — the most recent vintage that publishes per-school teacher quality fields; the 2020-21 sweep had them suppressed). "Inexperienced" = teachers in their first or second year. "Chronic absence" = teachers absent 10+ days/year.
🏛️ Federal Title I context
Title I Schoolwide eligible
≥40% FRPL — qualifies for Title I Schoolwide program
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.
Counselor capacity
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 -5.8%/year, projecting from 2024's 1,725 students:
≈ 444 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.
Revenue at risk
At $16,376 per student in district revenue, the 444 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $7,270,944/year in funding at risk.
District total revenue ÷ enrollment, NCES F-33. Public funding largely follows enrollment, so a shrinking class is a recurring budget hit.
Nearby high schools — the local competition
The closest high schools families here also consider, and where their enrollment is heading.
| School | Type | Miles | HS enrollment | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California Preparatory Academy San Juan Capistrano |
Public | 1.7 | 198 | -32.9% |
| College and Career Advantage San Juan Capistrano |
Public | 1.8 | — | — |
| Capistrano Valley Christian Schools San Juan Capistrano |
Private | 2.2 | 668 | +31.2% |
| Foundations Cognitive Schools San Juan Capistrano |
Private | 2.7 | 38 | — |
| Opportunities for Learning - Capistrano San Juan Capistrano |
Public · charter | 2.7 | 182 | +95.7% |
| Capistrano Union High San Juan Capistrano |
Public | 2.9 | 103 | -24.3% |
| Bridges Community Day San Juan Capistrano |
Public | 2.9 | 12 | — |
| OCASA College Prep San Juan Capistrano |
Public · charter | 2.9 | 21 | — |