Desert Sands Charter
Lancaster · CA · Desert Sands Charter District · Public charter · K-12 combined
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Most similar nearby schools
Empower Generations → SOAR High (Students On Academic Rise) → Lancaster High → Antelope Valley High → Assurance Learning Academy → Mission Academy → Stanza International Academy → Stanza International Academy →📋 At a glance
- 📚 1 AP courses offered — Limited
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- 🎓 AP rigor: Bottom 22% of US high schools
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 1% by test-taker volume
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 12% (Bottom 2% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Desert Sands Charter compares for families
What families should know about Desert Sands Charter.
- ▸ LocallyCA trails the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (−4 points). Stronger local schools matter even more.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Empower Generations, SOAR High (Students On Academic Rise), Lancaster High and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
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🎓 Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Limited — narrow advanced curriculum
Bottom 22% 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 1% 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?
Bottom 2% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate
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.
🏛️ Federal Title I context
High-poverty school
Title I Schoolwide eligible
≥75% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. These schools qualify for the highest tier of federal Title I funding and typically receive extra wraparound services. Academic outcomes vary widely — check the state assessment + grad-rate tiles.
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 +1.0%/year, projecting from 2024's 727 students:
An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.
Revenue upside
At $28,110 per student in district revenue, the 38 students projected to be gained by 2029 represent ≈ $1,068,180/year in additional funding.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Empower Generations Lancaster |
Public · charter | 1.0 | 81 | -12.0% |
| SOAR High (Students On Academic Rise) Lancaster |
Public | 1.4 | 670 | +44.4% |
| Lancaster High Lancaster |
Public | 1.6 | 2,688 | -1.4% |
| Antelope Valley High Lancaster |
Public | 2.2 | 1,498 | +2.7% |
| Assurance Learning Academy Lancaster |
Public · charter | 2.2 | 3,014 | +3.2% |
| Mission Academy Lancaster |
Public · charter | 2.3 | 614 | +83.3% |
| Stanza International Academy Lancaster |
Private | 2.4 | 11 | — |
| Stanza International Academy Lancaster |
Private | 2.4 | 9 | — |