Saddleback High
Santa Ana · CA · Santa Ana Unified · Public · K-12 combined
Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
Cesar E. Chavez High → Segerstrom High → Vista Meridian Global Academy → California Pacific Charter - San Diego → California Pacific Charter- Los Angeles → Valley High → Lorin Griset Academy → Hector G. Godinez →📋 At a glance
- 📚 14 AP courses offered — Elite
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🎓 AP rigor: 76th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 1% by test-taker volume
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 94% (69th percentile nationally)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Saddleback High compares for families
Stronger-than-average college-prep profile.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor in the top 24% nationally with 14 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: Cesar E. Chavez High, Segerstrom High, Vista Meridian Global Academy and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
For Parents
Follow Saddleback High
Get an email when Saddleback 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
76th 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 1% 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?
69th 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
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 -3.7%/year, projecting from 2024's 1,451 students:
≈ 250 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 $19,336 per student in district revenue, the 250 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $4,834,000/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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cesar E. Chavez High Santa Ana |
Public | 1.0 | 350 | +20.3% |
| Segerstrom High Santa Ana |
Public | 1.3 | 2,376 | -5.8% |
| Vista Meridian Global Academy Santa Ana |
Public · charter | 1.6 | 260 | +50.3% |
| California Pacific Charter - San Diego Costa Mesa |
Public · charter | 1.6 | 169 | +5.0% |
| California Pacific Charter- Los Angeles Costa Mesa |
Public · charter | 1.6 | 215 | +9.7% |
| Valley High Santa Ana |
Public | 1.6 | 1,908 | -15.2% |
| Lorin Griset Academy Santa Ana |
Public | 2.1 | 283 | +1.8% |
| Hector G. Godinez Santa Ana |
Public | 2.1 | 1,687 | -23.5% |