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Murrieta Mesa High

Murrieta · CA · Murrieta Valley Unified · Public

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📚AP rigor: 90th percentile nationally 📖22 AP courses 🎓98% 4-yr grad rate

📋 At a glance

Programs & features
  • 📚 22 AP courses offered — Elite
  • ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
  • 🔢 4 calculus classes · 9 physics · 15 chemistry
Academic signals
  • 🎓 AP rigor: 90th 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 Murrieta Mesa High compares for families

Standout academic depth by national standards.

  • StatewideAP rigor in the top 10% nationally with 22 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: Oak Grove Center (Jack Weaver School), Murrieta Valley High, Murrieta Canyon Academy and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.

For Parents

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🎓 Academic rigor

AP + advanced-course offerings

Elite — exceptional AP + advanced course breadth

90th percentile nationally

50th 90th ↑ this school
Less rigorMore rigorMost rigor
AP courses offered
22
Math ✓ · Science ✓
Advanced math classes
18
4 calculus · 14 advanced
Lab science classes
24
9 physics · 15 chemistry
Other rigor signals
✅ Dual-enrollment program

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 39% by test-taker volume

50th 90th
SAT/ACT test-takers
42
11th-12th graders who took 1+ college admissions test
Test-taking intensity
2.0
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?

Top 2.3% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate

50th 90th
4-year graduation rate
98%
Single-point estimate
4-year cohort size
575
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)
9.0%
Strong: experienced corps. New teachers rotate through but most have ≥3 years in.
% chronic teacher absence (≥10 days/yr)
33.8%
Elevated. Teacher absence directly affects classroom continuity and student outcomes.

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

Title I Schoolwide eligible

≥40% FRPL — qualifies for Title I Schoolwide program

59.7%
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)

40-74% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. The district can use Title I funds across the whole school under federal Schoolwide Program rules.

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
470:1
Around the US median. Counselors are stretched but functional.
Counselor FTE
4.4
Full-time-equivalent school counselors on staff.
Teacher FTE
98
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 574 in 2021 to 516 in 2024 — over 3 years.
-10.1%

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

If the recent trend holds…

At its recent rate of -3.4%/year, projecting from 2024's 2,066 students:

2025
1,996
2027
1,863
2029
1,739

≈ 327 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 $14,452 per student in district revenue, the 327 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $4,725,804/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
Oak Grove Center (Jack Weaver School)
Murrieta
Private 1.1 100 -12.3%
Murrieta Valley High
Murrieta
Public 1.8 2,104 -8.3%
Murrieta Canyon Academy
Murrieta
Public 1.9 180 -15.9%
Murrieta Options Academy
Murrieta
Public 1.9 12
Vista Murrieta High
Murrieta
Public 3.0 3,328 -9.2%
Chaparral High
Temecula
Public 3.5 3,136 +5.5%
MethodSchools
Murrieta
Public · charter 3.7 238 +40.0%
The University Of America High School
Temecula
Private 3.8 100 +96.1%

For Parents

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