Desert Heights Charter School
GLENDALE · AZ · Desert Heights Charter Schools (81099) · Public charter · K-12 combined
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Most similar nearby schools
Sunflower School → Intelli-School Glendale → Cactus High School → West-MEC - Cactus High School → Peoria eCampus → Deer Valley Academy → Deer Valley High School → ThrivePoint High School at Grovers →📋 At a glance
- 📚 3 AP courses offered — Strong
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🔢 2 calculus classes · 4 physics · 3 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 63th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: 57th percentile by test-taker volume
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Desert Heights Charter School compares for families
Solid mid-tier academic profile.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor at the 63th percentile nationally with 3 AP courses.
- ▸ LocallyAZ sits right at the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math — local school quality will set your kid apart.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Sunflower School, Intelli-School Glendale, Cactus High School and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
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🎓 Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Strong — solid AP program + advanced courses
63th percentile nationally
✅ 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 · 2020-2157th percentile 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.
👩🏫 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.
Chronic absenteeism
Why this matters to enrollment: Chronic absence is the strongest early indicator of dropout, transfer-out, and family disengagement. A school's absenteeism trend forecasts its enrollment trend 1-3 years out. For school leaders: an Enrollment Trend Audit traces this dynamic forward →
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020–2021. Rate = students chronically absent ÷ 2024 total enrollment.
Enrollment trend & projection
Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).
If the recent trend holds…
At its recent rate of -2.0%/year, projecting from 2024's 868 students:
≈ 84 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 $9,443 per student in district revenue, the 84 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $793,212/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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunflower School GLENDALE |
Public | 0.3 | 9 | — |
| Intelli-School Glendale GLENDALE |
Public · charter | 0.8 | 49 | — |
| Cactus High School GLENDALE |
Public | 0.9 | 1,036 | -11.5% |
| West-MEC - Cactus High School GLENDALE |
Public | 0.9 | 3 | — |
| Peoria eCampus Peoria |
Public | 1.2 | 83 | -51.2% |
| Deer Valley Academy GLENDALE |
Public · charter | 1.5 | 11 | — |
| Deer Valley High School GLENDALE |
Public | 1.5 | 1,707 | +8.9% |
| ThrivePoint High School at Grovers GLENDALE |
Public · charter | 1.5 | 58 | — |