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Palos Verdes Peninsula High

Rolling Hills Estates · CA · Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified · Public

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📚AP rigor: 86th percentile nationally 📖34 AP courses 🎓99% 4-yr grad rate

📋 At a glance

Programs & features
  • 📚 34 AP courses offered — Elite
  • ✅ Gifted & talented program
  • 🔢 6 calculus classes · 4 physics · 23 chemistry
Academic signals
  • 🎓 AP rigor: 86th percentile nationally
  • 📝 SAT/ACT participation: 66th percentile by test-taker volume
  • 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 99% (Top 0.7% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)

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

💡

How Palos Verdes Peninsula High compares for families

Standout academic depth by national standards.

  • StatewideAP rigor in the top 14% nationally with 34 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: Fusion Palos Verdes, Palos Verdes Distance Learning Academy, Rancho del Mar High (Continuation) 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

86th percentile nationally

50th 90th ↑ this school
Less rigorMore rigorMost rigor
AP courses offered
34
Math ✓ · Science ✓
Advanced math classes
47
6 calculus · 41 advanced
Lab science classes
27
4 physics · 23 chemistry
Other rigor signals
✅ 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 · 2020-21

66th percentile by test-taker volume

50th 90th
SAT/ACT test-takers
128
11th-12th graders who took 1+ college admissions test
Test-taking intensity
6.2
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?

Top 0.7% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate

50th 90th
4-year graduation rate
99%
Range: 99–100%
4-year cohort size
504
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)
5.1%
Strong: experienced corps. New teachers rotate through but most have ≥3 years in.
% chronic teacher absence (≥10 days/yr)
17.6%
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

Lower-need school

Not Title I eligible (FRPL < 25%)

11.8%
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
259:1
Above the ASCA 250:1 target but below the US median (~430:1). Capacity is workable.
Counselor FTE
8.0
Full-time-equivalent school counselors on staff.
Teacher FTE
95
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 578 in 2021 to 571 in 2024 — over 3 years.
-1.2%

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

If the recent trend holds…

At its recent rate of -3.9%/year, projecting from 2024's 2,075 students:

2025
1,994
2027
1,840
2029
1,698

≈ 377 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 $14,520 per student in district revenue, the 377 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $5,474,040/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
Fusion Palos Verdes
Rolling Hills Estates
Private 0.4 32
Palos Verdes Distance Learning Academy
Rolling Hills
Public 1.5 28
Rancho del Mar High (Continuation)
Rolling Hills
Public 1.6 41
South High
Torrance
Public 2.4 1,734 -11.6%
Center For Learning Unlimited
Torrance
Private 2.5 25
Palos Verdes High
Palos Verdes Estates
Public 2.7 1,484 +4.7%
Bishop Montgomery High
Torrance
Private 4.0 846 +0.1%
George S. Patton Continuation
Harbor City
Public 4.1 37

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