← CA High School Explorer

Malibu High

Malibu · CA · Santa Monica-Malibu Unified · Public

📄 Shareable scorecard →

🎓97% 4-yr grad rate

📋 At a glance

Programs & features
  • 📚 4 AP courses offered — Strong
  • 🔢 3 calculus classes
Academic signals
  • 🎓 AP rigor: 54th percentile nationally
  • 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 14% by test-taker volume
  • 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 97% (90th percentile nationally)

Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.

💡

How Malibu High compares for families

Solid mid-tier academic profile.

  • StatewideAP rigor at the 54th percentile nationally with 4 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: Road to Success Academy at Campus Kilpatrick SDF, Fusion Academy Westlake Village, Compass Charter Schools of San Diego and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
📬

Follow Malibu High

Get an email when Malibu High's numbers change — new admissions results, enrollment shifts, test scores. A few updates a year, no spam.

🎓 Academic rigor

AP + advanced-course offerings

Strong — solid AP program + advanced courses

54th percentile nationally

50th 90th ↑ this school
Less rigorMore rigorMost rigor
AP courses offered
4
Math ✓
Advanced math classes
6
3 calculus · 3 advanced
Other rigor signals
No dual-enrollment or gifted program reported

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 · 2020-21

Bottom 14% by test-taker volume

50th 90th
SAT/ACT test-takers
10
11th-12th graders who took 1+ college admissions test
Test-taking intensity
2.6
takers per 100 students in grades 9-12
Compared against
18,426
US high schools reporting SAT/ACT participation

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?

90th percentile nationally

50th 90th
4-year graduation rate
97%
Range: 95–100%
4-year cohort size
150
Students in the 9th-grade entry class tracked over 4 years
Compared against
17,988
US high schools reporting 4-year ACGR

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

% inexperienced teachers (1st-2nd yr)
6.0%
Strong: experienced corps. New teachers rotate through but most have ≥3 years in.
% chronic teacher absence (≥10 days/yr)
6.0%
Around the national average. Worth watching.

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%)

20.9%
FRPL rate — % of students who qualify for the federal Free or Reduced-Price Lunch program. This is the underlying federal income-eligibility signal Title I designations are computed from (ESEA Sec. 1113).
0% (no FRPL) 35% TA · 40% Schoolwide 100% (universal FRPL)

<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

Student : Counselor
194:1
Below the ASCA 250:1 recommendation — strong capacity for college planning, course selection, and student supports.
Counselor FTE
2.0
Full-time-equivalent school counselors on staff.
Teacher FTE
29
Full-time-equivalent classroom teachers.

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

Grade 12 went from 117 in 2021 to 93 in 2024 — over 3 years.
-20.5%

Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).

If the recent trend holds…

At its recent rate of -2.1%/year, projecting from 2024's 387 students:

2025
379
2027
364
2029
349

≈ 38 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 $26,928 per student in district revenue, the 38 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $1,023,264/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.

SchoolTypeMilesHS enrollmentTrend
Road to Success Academy at Campus Kilpatrick SDF
Malibu
Public 4.6 4
Fusion Academy Westlake Village
Westlake Village
Private 8.8 44
Compass Charter Schools of San Diego
Thousand Oaks
Public · charter 9.0 189 -9.6%
Compass Charter Schools of Los Angeles
Thousand Oaks
Public · charter 9.0 248 +12.2%
Compass Charter School of Yolo
Thousand Oaks
Public · charter 9.0 69 -25.8%
River Oaks Academy
Westlake Village
Public · charter 9.0 114 +2.7%
Westlake High
Westlake Village
Public 9.4 1,900 -12.3%
Agoura High
Agoura
Public 9.8 1,709 -8.8%

Researching colleges for your kid at Malibu High?

Get a personalized College Plan Audit — find Reach, Target, and Safety colleges matched to your kid's GPA, test scores, intended major, and your family's budget. Free.

Start the College Plan Audit →

For school leaders looking at enrollment trends: request an Enrollment Trend Audit →