Early College High
Costa Mesa · CA · Newport-Mesa Unified · Public
Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
Costa Mesa High → Estancia High → The Waldorf School Of Orange County → Coastline ROP → California Pacific Charter - San Diego → California Pacific Charter- Los Angeles → Segerstrom High → Fountain Valley High →📋 At a glance
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- 🔢 1 calculus classes · 3 physics · 2 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: Bottom 40% of US high schools
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 7% by test-taker volume
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 95% (75th percentile nationally)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Early College High 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: Costa Mesa High, Estancia High, The Waldorf School Of Orange County and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
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🎓 Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Moderate — some AP / advanced course access
Bottom 40% of US high schools
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 · 2020-21Bottom 7% 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?
75th 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 177 students:
A small or specialty program — naive trend math doesn't capture the school's full picture. Read the trend as directional, not predictive.
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.
| School | Type | Miles | HS enrollment | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Costa Mesa High Costa Mesa |
Public | 1.4 | 1,151 | -2.0% |
| Estancia High Costa Mesa |
Public | 1.5 | 974 | -15.5% |
| The Waldorf School Of Orange County Costa Mesa |
Private | 1.6 | 277 | -14.5% |
| Coastline ROP Costa Mesa |
Public | 1.7 | — | — |
| California Pacific Charter - San Diego Costa Mesa |
Public · charter | 2.0 | 169 | +5.0% |
| California Pacific Charter- Los Angeles Costa Mesa |
Public · charter | 2.0 | 215 | +9.7% |
| Segerstrom High Santa Ana |
Public | 2.3 | 2,376 | -5.8% |
| Fountain Valley High Fountain Valley |
Public | 2.6 | 3,171 | -3.5% |