Laguna Beach High
Laguna Beach · CA · Laguna Beach Unified · Public
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Most similar nearby schools
The Discovery Preparatory School → Aliso Niguel High → Laguna Hills High → Capistrano Valley High → Dana Hills High → Fairmont San Juan Capistrano → Fairmont Private School → New Vista School →📋 At a glance
- 📚 19 AP courses offered — Elite
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🔢 8 calculus classes · 8 physics · 12 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 86th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 39% by test-taker volume
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 98% (Top 2.3% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Laguna Beach High compares for families
Standout academic depth by national standards.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor in the top 14% 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: The Discovery Preparatory School, Aliso Niguel High, Laguna Hills 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
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 · 2020-21Bottom 39% 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?
Top 2.3% 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.
👩🏫 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
Lower-need school
Not Title I eligible (FRPL < 25%)
<25% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. Well below the Title I threshold; expect a higher-income student body on average.
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 -7.0%/year, projecting from 2024's 815 students:
≈ 248 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 $28,942 per student in district revenue, the 248 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $7,177,616/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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Discovery Preparatory School Aliso Viejo |
Private | 3.2 | 34 | — |
| Aliso Niguel High Aliso Viejo |
Public | 3.5 | 2,560 | -7.7% |
| Laguna Hills High Laguna Hills |
Public | 5.5 | 1,317 | -8.4% |
| Capistrano Valley High Mission Viejo |
Public | 6.1 | 1,991 | -4.1% |
| Dana Hills High Dana Point |
Public | 6.2 | 1,724 | -16.4% |
| Fairmont San Juan Capistrano San Juan Capistrano |
Private | 6.3 | 360 | -47.7% |
| Fairmont Private School San Juan Capistrano |
Private | 6.3 | 338 | — |
| New Vista School Laguna Hills |
Private | 6.3 | 73 | +2.8% |