Buena Vista High School

Lakewood · Los Angeles County · Paramount Unified
Public Los Angeles County 🏛 Paramount Unified → ~150 seniors CDS 1964873…
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Most similar nearby schools

College Bridge Academy → Cesar Chavez Continuation High → Odyssey STEM Academy → Vista High → Educational Partnership Hs → Compare all similar →

Enrollment trend & projection

Total enrollment (9–12)
196 (2018)200 (2026)
+2.0%
Grade 12 (graduating class)
159 (2018)129 (2026)
-18.9%

If this trend holds (+0.3%/yr, Total enrollment)

At per-pupil funding of $ / student:

Horizon Projected Total enrollment Change Funding impact / yr
1 yr (2027) ~201 +1 $0
3 yr (2029) ~202 +2 $0
5 yr (2031) ~203 +3 $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.

Critical
Compounding decline on both vectors.

Enrollment -18.9% vs. county -8.2% AND stability (37.9%) below the county median. Recruitment and retention both under pressure — likely a foundational rather than tactical problem. Chronic absenteeism is also at 76.4% (up +41.0 pts from 2016-17) — engagement and demand are both signaling decline.

-18.9%  school enrollment (2018–2026)
-8.2%  Los Angeles County baseline
-10.7pp  gap vs. county
37.9%  retention (county median 87.3%)
Enrollment — indexed to 100 at 2018
Stability rate by year (raw %)
Stability rate
37.9%
124 of 327 students

203 of 327 students who enrolled at Buena Vista High School this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (62.1% non-stability). Mid-year transfers, dropouts, and other exits are all counted.

Los Angeles County median
87.3% · school is in the 10th percentile of 387 HS
Statewide median
87.2% · in the 11th percentile of 1,688 HS

Stability by student group

Socio. disadvantaged (319) 38.6%
Hispanic / Latino (265) 38.1%
English learners (69) 37.7%
Students w/ disabilities (48) 33.3%
Black / African Am. (45) 31.1%

Nearest peer high schools

College Bridge Academy 41.9% Cesar Chavez Continuation High 38.9% Odyssey STEM Academy 93.6% Vista High 56.7% Educational Partnership Hs 37.1%

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.

Chronic absent
76.4%
233 of 305 students

Absenteeism is up 41.0 pp since 2016-17. A rising absenteeism trend often precedes formal departure — worth investigating which subgroups are driving it.

Los Angeles County median
25.2% · school is worse than 93% of 381 HS
Statewide median
22.9%
Chronic absenteeism by year (raw %)

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.

ELA — met or exceeded
n = 94
13.8%
incl. 2.1% exceeded
-44.2 pts vs. Los Angeles County median (58.0%) · CA median 54.3% · Top 10% statewide ≥ 79.3%
Math — met or exceeded
n = 98
2.0%
incl. 1.0% exceeded
-23.0 pts vs. Los Angeles County median (25.0%) · CA median 21.1% · Top 10% statewide ≥ 53.6%

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

Hispanic / Latino 76% -12.7
Black / African Am. 18% +10.5
White 3% +1.6
Pacific Islander 2% +1.0
Two or more 1%
American Indian 0%

Program subgroups

Students w/ disabilities 93% +3.8
English learners 18% -6.4
Socioeconomically disadv. 9% -1.3

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 — Paramount Unified (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.

Total revenue
$268.6M
+18.4% since FY2017
Per-pupil revenue
$19,518
13,761 students enrolled
Revenue mix
State: 64.5%
Local: 19.7%
Federal: 15.8%
Instruction share
57.7%
of current spending · $9,182/pupil
Long-term debt
$233.2M
+42.7% since FY2017
Total revenue by year ($M)
Total expenditure by year ($M)

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 Paramount Unified 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).

University of California outcomes · Class of 2024
UC Reach
N/A
UC Application Reach
N/A
None applications
UC Admit Rate
N/A
None / None applications
UC Yield Rate
N/A
None enrolled of None admitted
Yield vs. Enrollment Reach: Yield answers "of UC admits, what % chose UC?" — denominator is just the admits. A small admitted cohort can post a low yield even when the school sends a healthy share of its class to UC.
UC Enrollment Reach
N/A
None enrollees / 150 seniors
Enrollment Reach vs. Yield: Reach answers "of the whole senior class, what % ended up at UC?" — denominator is everyone. High Yield with low Enrollment Reach is common at elite privates: most admits matriculate, but the school sends most of its class to non-UC selective colleges.
Student-Counselor Ratio
87:1
2.3 FTE counselors · 200 students
In context: CA median 338:1 · 251 fewer students per counselor · ASCA target 250:1.
A-G Completion
0%
2024-25 cohort
In context: CA median 55.9% · -55.9 pp vs. median · Los Angeles Co. 68.2%.
Selective UC Reach (UCSD, UCSB, UCI, UCD)
N/A
Elite UC Reach (UCB + UCLA)
N/A
Senior Class Size
150
CDE grade 12 (exact)
Total School Enrollment
213
All grades · CDE Census Day

Buena Vista High School — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot

Public · Lakewood · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools

  • Senior-class enrollment is down 19% (159→129 from 2018 to 2026), outpacing the peer-group median of -31%.
  • Enrollment has been growing (+0.3%/yr); projects to ~202 by 2029.

Enrollment projection

200 students (2026)
~202 projected (2029)
at +0.3%/yr

Your school vs. its 10 most similar nearby schools

School Type Size UC Reach Enroll. trend
Buena Vista High School Public 200 -19%
Peer-group median 42.1% -31%
College Bridge Academy Public 208 -84%
Cesar Chavez Continuation High Public 212 -56%
Odyssey STEM Academy Public 256 42.1% -22%
Vista High Public 170 -2%
Educational Partnership Hs Public 311 -65%
Columbus (christopher) High Public 322 +32%
Richard D Browning High School Public 336 -14%
Reid High Public 102 -44%
Visual And Performing Arts At Legacy High School Complex Public 354 +15%
Somerset High Public 87 -41%

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 →

Campus Breakdown — 2024

Campus Applicants Admits Enrollees Admit Rate UC Reach Yield Avg GPA (App) Avg GPA (Adm)
UC San Diego → Selective
UC Santa Barbara → Selective
UC Irvine → Selective
UC Davis →
⚠ Campus-level totals may count one student admitted to multiple UC campuses more than once. Admit Volume metrics are not the same as UC Reach, which requires unique-student counts. See methodology →

What This Means

Note: admit counts used here are campus-level totals. A student admitted to both UCLA and UCSD is counted twice. When UCOP unique-student data becomes available it will be loaded automatically and the labels will update.
Compare with other schools → See Los Angeles County rankings →

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