Half Moon Bay High
Half Moon Bay · CA · Cabrillo Unified · Public
Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
Main Street Scholars → Margaret J. Kemp → Hillcrest at Youth Services Center → Gateway Center → The Nueva Middle School → Hillsdale High → Aragon High → Fusion Academy - San Mateo →📋 At a glance
- 📚 17 AP courses offered — Elite
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🔢 4 calculus classes · 5 physics · 6 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 86th percentile nationally
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 92% (60th percentile nationally)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Half Moon Bay High compares for families
Standout academic depth by national standards.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor in the top 14% nationally with 17 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: Main Street Scholars, Margaret J. Kemp, Hillcrest at Youth Services Center and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
Follow Half Moon Bay High
Get an email when Half Moon Bay High's numbers change — new admissions results, enrollment shifts, test scores. A few updates a year, no spam.
🎓 Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Elite — exceptional AP + advanced course breadth
86th 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 · 2020-21Source: 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?
60th 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
Mixed-income school
Below Title I eligibility threshold (FRPL < 35%)
25-34% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. Below the federal Title I threshold but a meaningful share of the population is income-eligible for free lunch.
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 -4.3%/year, projecting from 2024's 911 students:
≈ 179 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 $18,606 per student in district revenue, the 179 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $3,330,474/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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main Street Scholars Half Moon Bay |
Private | 0.5 | 15 | — |
| Margaret J. Kemp San Mateo |
Public | 5.6 | 3 | — |
| Hillcrest at Youth Services Center San Mateo |
Public | 5.7 | 13 | — |
| Gateway Center San Mateo |
Public | 5.8 | 11 | — |
| The Nueva Middle School Hillsborough |
Private | 6.7 | 946 | +10.9% |
| Hillsdale High San Mateo |
Public | 7.5 | 1,585 | -3.8% |
| Aragon High San Mateo |
Public | 7.6 | 1,658 | -5.6% |
| Fusion Academy - San Mateo San Mateo |
Private | 7.6 | 71 | +12.7% |