Academy of the Canyons
📄 Shareable scorecard →Compare with peers
Most similar nearby schools
Bowman (jereann) High (continuation) → Puc Lakeview Charter High → Cesar E. Chavez Learning Academies-Academy Of Scientific Exploration (ase) → Cesar E. Chavez Learning Academies-Social Justice Humanitas Academy → Cesar E. Chavez Learning Academies-Technology Preparatory Academy → Compare all similar →Enrollment trend & projection
If this trend holds (-1.0%/yr, Total enrollment)
At per-pupil funding of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Funding impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2027) | ~371 | -4 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2029) | ~364 | -11 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2031) | ~357 | -18 | $0 |
Straight-line extrapolation of the recent annual rate — a what-if, not a forecast of intent. Default = California's LCFF base grant for grades 9–12 ($12,423/ADA). Edit the figure to match your school.
Enrollment stability & demand — 2024-25
Two complementary signals: retention (do students stay once enrolled?) and demand (are families choosing the school?). Read against the Los Angeles County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.
Academy of the Canyons is shrinking (-2.0%) but Los Angeles County is shrinking faster (-8.2%), so Academy of the Canyons is winning roughly 6.2 pp of relative market share. Combined with 99.2% stability (county median 87.3%), this reflects a school that families actively chose during a market contraction. Replicable model — worth documenting what's working.
3 of 386 students who enrolled at Academy of the Canyons this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (0.8% non-stability). Mid-year transfers, dropouts, and other exits are all counted.
Stability by student group
Nearest peer high schools
Source: California Department of Education, Stability Rate 2024-25. Benchmarks limited to non-virtual public & charter HS with ≥100 cumulative enrollees so by-design-high-churn continuation schools don't dominate the bottom of the distribution. Cumulative enrollment counts every student on the rolls during the year, so it can exceed peak-day enrollment.
Chronic absenteeism — 2024-25
Share of students missing 10% or more of expected attendance — the leading indicator that often precedes the demand decline shown above. Families disengaging tend to raise absenteeism first, then formally leave. Basis: grades 9–12.
Low and stable absenteeism — students are engaged and showing up. The leading indicator is healthy.
Source: California Department of Education, Chronic Absenteeism 2024-25. Benchmarks limited to non-virtual public & charter HS with ≥100 eligible students. CDE didn't publish a usable 2019-20 file (COVID).
SBAC academic outcomes — grade 11, 2025
Share of grade-11 students meeting or exceeding the California standard on Smarter Balanced ELA and Math. This is the academic-readiness signal that pairs with UC Reach (post-grad outcomes), stability (retention), and absenteeism (engagement). Note: statewide median Math is only ~20% — a school at 20% isn't an outlier; one at 45%+ genuinely is.
Source: California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) Smarter Balanced research files. Benchmarks limited to non-virtual public & charter HS with ≥30 tested students.
Student composition — 2025-26
HS grades 9–12 racial/ethnic composition and program subgroups, from CDE Census Day Enrollment. Two-year shift shown when ≥1 pt — surfaces how the community served has changed since 2023-24.
Race / ethnicity
Program subgroups
Source: California Department of Education, Census Day Enrollment 2025-26 (HS grades 9–12). Δ shown when shift is ≥1 pt since 2023-24. Categories below 0.5% omitted.
District financial profile — William S. Hart Union High (FY2020)
From 4 years of NCES F-33 filings (the federally-mandated district finance survey). Public schools don't have their own books — the district does. These figures show the financial scale, revenue dependence, instruction-vs-overhead mix, and long-term debt that shape what a school can sustain.
Local: 25.6%
Federal: 5.5%
Source: NCES F-33 Annual Survey of School System Finances (Urban Institute Education Data API). Latest year currently published: FY2020. F-33 is a district-level federal filing — it reflects the William S. Hart Union High as a whole, not this individual school's books. Revenue mix shows where the district's dollars come from (state aid dominates in CA via LCFF). Instruction share is current expenditure on instruction ÷ total current expenditure (national benchmark ~60%). Long-term debt is end-of-year outstanding (mostly facilities bonds).
+34.1 pp above peer median (33.9%) · Ranked #1 of 3 similar schools
18.5%
33.9%
53.3%
68.0%
Higher than 96% of California high schools (1105 ranked, ≥50 seniors)
Academy of the Canyons's UC Reach of 68.0% clears the statewide top-10% cutoff (53.3%) — meaning roughly 68 top-6 UC admits per 100 seniors, well above what most California schools achieve.
Against similar schools, Academy of the Canyons stands out clearly — the peer-group median is 33.9%.
For context, the elite tier (top 1%) clears 102.7% — a gap of 35 pp from where this school sits.
Overall, Academy of the Canyons's UC Reach is higher than 96% of California high schools (1105 ranked).
Academy of the Canyons — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot
Public · Santa Clarita · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools
- ▸On UC Reach, Academy of the Canyons sits near the top of its similar-school group (ranked #1 of 3): 68% vs. a peer median of 34%.
- ▸Its UC Reach has risen 5 points since 2018.
- ▸Senior-class enrollment is down 2% (100→98 from 2018 to 2026), outpacing the peer-group median of -18%.
- ▸In business terms, this is market-share growth during a market contraction. Los Angeles County's senior population shrank 8% over the same window — Academy of the Canyons only shrank 2%. So Academy of the Canyons picked up about 6 percentage points of relative share — families chose it over the alternatives even as the overall pool got smaller. That's overperforming the market in a shrinking market.
- ▸At its recent rate (-1.0%/yr), enrollment projects to ~364 by 2029 — about 11 fewer students than today.
Enrollment projection
That's about 11 fewer students. At per-student funding of $ per student, that's roughly $0 in annual state funding at risk.
Default = California's LCFF base grant for grades 9–12 ($12,423 per ADA) — adjust to your district's actual per-pupil figure. Projection extrapolates the recent annual rate — not a forecast of intent.
Your school vs. its 10 most similar nearby schools
| School | Type | Size | UC Reach | Enroll. trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy of the Canyons | Public | 375 | 68.0% | -2% |
| Peer-group median | 33.9% | -18% | ||
| Bowman (jereann) High (continuation) | Public | 268 | — | -39% |
| Puc Lakeview Charter High | Public | 451 | — | -19% |
| Cesar E. Chavez Learning Academies-Academy Of Scientific Exploration (ase) | Public | 397 | — | -17% |
| Cesar E. Chavez Learning Academies-Social Justice Humanitas Academy | Public | 432 | — | -24% |
| Cesar E. Chavez Learning Academies-Technology Preparatory Academy | Public | 278 | — | -15% |
| Sotomayor Arts And Sciences Magnet | Public | 540 | — | +52% |
| Valley International Preparatory High | Public | 290 | — | -20% |
| Cesar E. Chavez Learning Academies-Arts/theatre/entertain Mag | Public | 267 | — | -32% |
| Magnolia Science Academy 2 | Public | 448 | 40.9% | +14% |
| Valor Academy High School | Public | 505 | 26.8% | +4% |
UC Reach = top-6 UC admits ÷ senior class (can exceed 100% when students are admitted to multiple campuses). Enrollment trend = first-to-latest grade-12 change on file. Similar schools matched on proximity, size, type. Methodology →
Admit rate vs. CA peer average, by campus ⓘ
How does this school's admit rate at each UC compare to other CA schools whose applicant pool averages the same GPA?
| Campus | Applicant GPA (avg) | Actual admit rate | CA peer avg | Δ | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley | 4.06 | 14.9% | 13.6% | +1.3pp | On target |
| UCLA | 4.04 | 15.8% | 9.5% | +6.3pp | Over |
| UC San Diego | 4.04 | 10.5% | 19.2% | -8.6pp | Under |
| UC Santa Barbara | 4.04 | 36.2% | 34.7% | +1.4pp | On target |
| UC Irvine | 4.05 | 14.5% | 28.7% | -14.1pp | Under |
| UC Davis | 4.09 | 61.3% | 33.7% | +27.6pp | Over |
Where Academy of the Canyons sits vs. all California schools ⓘ
Overall, this school admits its UC applicants in line with what their GPAs predict (22.4% actual vs. 22.2% expected).
UC Outcomes Trend — 2018–2025
Class size from CDE grade 12 enrollment. Campus-level data — applicant/admit totals may count a student at multiple campuses more than once.
Campus Breakdown — 2025
| Campus | Applicants | Admits | Enrollees | Admit Rate | UC Reach | Yield | Avg GPA (App) | Avg GPA (Adm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley → Elite | 47 | 7 | 5 | 14.9% | 7.2% | 71.4% | 4.06 | 4.22 |
| UCLA → Elite | 57 | 9 | 7 | 15.8% | 9.3% | 77.8% | 4.04 | 4.28 |
| UC San Diego → Selective | 57 | 6 | — | 10.5% | 6.2% | — | 4.04 | 4.30 |
| UC Santa Barbara → Selective | 47 | 17 | — | 36.2% | 17.5% | — | 4.04 | 4.26 |
| UC Irvine → Selective | 55 | 8 | — | 14.5% | 8.2% | — | 4.05 | 4.24 |
| UC Davis → | 31 | 19 | — | 61.3% | 19.6% | — | 4.09 | 4.20 |