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Madera South High

Madera · CA · Madera Unified · Public

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📖37 AP courses 🎓97% 4-yr grad rate

📋 At a glance

Programs & features
  • 📚 37 AP courses offered — Elite
  • 🔢 1 calculus classes · 1 physics · 22 chemistry
Academic signals
  • 🎓 AP rigor: 70th percentile nationally
  • 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 12% by test-taker volume
  • 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 97% (90th percentile nationally)

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

💡

How Madera South High compares for families

Stronger-than-average college-prep profile.

  • StatewideAP rigor at the 70th percentile nationally with 37 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: Madera Unified Adult Transition Program, Remnant Christian School, Gould Educational Center and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
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🎓 Academic rigor

AP + advanced-course offerings

Elite — exceptional AP + advanced course breadth

70th percentile nationally

50th 90th ↑ this school
Less rigorMore rigorMost rigor
AP courses offered
37
Science ✓
Advanced math classes
4
1 calculus · 3 advanced
Lab science classes
23
1 physics · 22 chemistry
Other rigor signals
No dual-enrollment or gifted program reported

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
0.4
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
701
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.

👩‍🏫 Teacher workforce · federal CRDC

Teacher experience & reliability

% inexperienced teachers (1st-2nd yr)
5.9%
Strong: experienced corps. New teachers rotate through but most have ≥3 years in.
% chronic teacher absence (≥10 days/yr)
39.7%
Elevated. Teacher absence directly affects classroom continuity and student outcomes.

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

High-poverty school

Title I Schoolwide eligible

95.2%
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)

≥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.

Counselor capacity

Student : Counselor
207:1
Below the ASCA 250:1 recommendation — strong capacity for college planning, course selection, and student supports.
Counselor FTE
9.0
Full-time-equivalent school counselors on staff.
Teacher FTE
117
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

Grade 12 went from 756 in 2021 to 386 in 2024 — over 3 years.
-48.9%

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

If the recent trend holds…

At its recent rate of -7.9%/year, projecting from 2024's 1,859 students:

2025
1,711
2027
1,450
2029
1,229

≈ 630 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 $18,470 per student in district revenue, the 630 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $11,636,100/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.

SchoolTypeMilesHS enrollmentTrend
Madera Unified Adult Transition Program
Madera
Public 0.2 15
Remnant Christian School
Madera
Private 0.6 21
Gould Educational Center
Madera
Public 0.9 154 +4.1%
Madera High
Madera
Public 1.0 1,869 -3.6%
Madera County Independent Academy
Madera
Public · charter 1.8
Juvenile Hall (Endeavor/Voyager Secondary)
Madera
Public 1.9 27
Enterprise Secondary
Madera
Public 2.0
Pioneer Technical Center
Madera
Public · charter 2.0 201 -21.2%

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