La Serna High
Whittier · CA · Whittier Union High · Public
Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
California High → Whittier Christian High School → La Habra High → Frontier High (Continuation) → Cleta Harder Developmental School → Whittier High → St Paul High School → La Mirada High →📋 At a glance
- 📚 19 AP courses offered — Elite
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- 🔢 14 calculus classes · 20 physics · 34 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 90th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 31% 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 La Serna 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 High, Whittier Christian High School, La Habra High 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
90th percentile nationally
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 31% 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 -0.4%/year, projecting from 2024's 2,372 students:
≈ 49 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 $21,668 per student in district revenue, the 49 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $1,061,732/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 High Whittier |
Public | 1.7 | 2,261 | -13.4% |
| Whittier Christian High School La Habra |
Private | 2.1 | 359 | -37.9% |
| La Habra High La Habra |
Public | 2.7 | 1,881 | -7.5% |
| Frontier High (Continuation) Whittier |
Public | 2.7 | 364 | -19.6% |
| Cleta Harder Developmental School La Habra |
Private | 3.1 | 34 | — |
| Whittier High Whittier |
Public | 3.2 | 1,652 | -8.3% |
| St Paul High School Santa Fe Springs |
Private | 3.2 | 434 | -30.0% |
| La Mirada High La Mirada |
Public | 3.3 | 1,726 | -5.8% |