Academy of Careers and Exploration
Helendale · CA · Helendale Elementary · Public charter · K-12 combined
Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
Independence Charter Academy → Riverside Preparatory → Bright Futures Academy - Adelanto → Taylion High Desert Academy/Adelanto → Goodwill High → Victor Valley High → Academy for Academic Excellence → Adelanto High →📋 At a glance
- 📚 3 AP courses offered — Moderate
- 🔢 1 calculus classes · 2 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: Bottom 47% of US high schools
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 95% (75th percentile nationally)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Academy of Careers and Exploration 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: Independence Charter Academy, Riverside Preparatory, Bright Futures Academy - Adelanto and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
For Parents
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🎓 Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Moderate — some AP / advanced course access
Bottom 47% 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 · 2020-21Source: 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.
🏛️ Your state's public flagship
University of California-Berkeley
The in-state tuition gap is the flagship's biggest draw — most in-state families pay far less than the out-of-state sticker. Average net price after aid runs about $13,481/yr. Admission odds depend on your student's GPA and test scores, not which high school they attend.
Source: IPEDS admissions, tuition & enrollment + College Scorecard net price. Flagship = the state's primary public research university.
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 -0.5%/year, projecting from 2024's 285 students:
≈ 7 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 $14,007 per student in district revenue, the 7 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $98,049/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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Independence Charter Academy Helendale |
Public · charter | 1.7 | 68 | -34.0% |
| Riverside Preparatory Oro Grande |
Public · charter | 9.5 | 889 | +5.6% |
| Bright Futures Academy - Adelanto Adelanto |
Private | 11.2 | 42 | — |
| Taylion High Desert Academy/Adelanto Adelanto |
Public · charter | 11.2 | 389 | +192.5% |
| Goodwill High Victorville |
Public | 14.3 | 58 | -29.3% |
| Victor Valley High Victorville |
Public | 14.5 | 2,255 | +18.6% |
| Academy for Academic Excellence Apple Valley |
Public · charter | 14.7 | 438 | +2.6% |
| Adelanto High Adelanto |
Public | 14.8 | 2,247 | +6.3% |