Making Waves Academy
Richmond · CA · Making Waves Academy District · Public charter · K-12 combined
📄 Shareable scorecard →Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
Summit Public School: Tamalpais → Aspire Richmond Ca. College Preparatory Academy → Spectrum Center - Tara Hills → Middle College High → Seneca Family Of Agencie- Catalyst Academy → Salesian High School → Salesian College Preparatory High School → Pinole Valley High →📋 At a glance
- 📚 7 AP courses offered — Strong
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🔢 1 calculus classes
- 🎓 AP rigor: 58th 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 Making Waves Academy compares for families
Solid mid-tier academic profile.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor at the 58th percentile nationally with 7 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: Summit Public School: Tamalpais, Aspire Richmond Ca. College Preparatory Academy, Spectrum Center - Tara Hills 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
58th 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.
🏛️ 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 -1.4%/year, projecting from 2024's 1,078 students:
≈ 73 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 $21,746 per student in district revenue, the 73 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $1,587,458/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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summit Public School: Tamalpais Richmond |
Public · charter | 0.8 | 397 | +3.4% |
| Aspire Richmond Ca. College Preparatory Academy Richmond |
Public · charter | 0.8 | 310 | -0.6% |
| Spectrum Center - Tara Hills San Pablo |
Private | 0.9 | 48 | — |
| Middle College High San Pablo |
Public | 1.3 | 294 | +0.0% |
| Seneca Family Of Agencie- Catalyst Academy El Sobrante |
Private | 1.6 | 23 | — |
| Salesian High School Richmond |
Private | 2.5 | 386 | -9.0% |
| Salesian College Preparatory High School Richmond |
Private | 2.5 | 386 | — |
| Pinole Valley High Pinole |
Public | 2.5 | 1,245 | -5.4% |