Carson High School
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Most similar nearby schools
Nathaniel Narbonne Senior High → Cabrillo High → Gardena High School → King/Drew Medical Magnet High → Dominguez High → Compare all similar →Enrollment trend & projection
If this trend holds (-0.9%/yr, Total enrollment)
At per-pupil funding of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Funding impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2027) | ~1,399 | -13 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2029) | ~1,374 | -38 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2031) | ~1,348 | -64 | $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.
Enrollment is shrinking faster than Los Angeles County (school -10.4% vs. county -8.2%) with stability (87.7%) near the county median. Two problems compounding — the recruitment side is the higher-leverage starting point.
184 of 1,497 students who enrolled at Carson High School this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (12.3% 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.
Absenteeism is up 12.6 pp since 2016-17. A rising absenteeism trend often precedes formal departure — worth investigating which subgroups are driving it.
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 — Los Angeles 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.
Local: 29.8%
Federal: 18.5%
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 Los Angeles 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).
-7.9 pp vs. peer median (28.8%) · Ranked #7 of 9 similar schools
18.5%
28.8%
53.3%
20.9%
Higher than 57% of California high schools (1105 ranked, ≥50 seniors)
Carson High School's UC Reach of 20.9% is above the California median (18.5%). The top 10% of CA schools achieve 53.3% or higher.
For context, the elite tier (top 1%) clears 102.7% — a gap of 82 pp from where this school sits.
Overall, Carson High School's UC Reach is higher than 57% of California high schools (1105 ranked).
Carson High School — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot
Public · Carson · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools
- ▸On UC Reach, Carson High School sits near the bottom of its similar-school group (ranked #7 of 9): 21% vs. a peer median of 29%.
- ▸Its UC Reach has risen 9 points since 2018.
- ▸Senior-class enrollment is down 10% (355→318 from 2018 to 2026), trailing the peer-group median of -6%.
- ▸At its recent rate (-0.9%/yr), enrollment projects to ~1374 by 2029 — about 38 fewer students than today.
Enrollment projection
That's about 38 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carson High School | Public | 1412 | 20.9% | -10% |
| Peer-group median | 28.8% | -6% | ||
| Nathaniel Narbonne Senior High | Public | 1328 | 23.1% | -30% |
| Cabrillo High | Public | 1489 | — | -35% |
| Gardena High School | Public | 1270 | 13.6% | +5% |
| King/Drew Medical Magnet High | Public | 1350 | — | -12% |
| Dominguez High | Public | 1502 | 18.6% | -1% |
| South High | Public | 1707 | 35.9% | -14% |
| Torrance High School | Public | 1939 | 28.8% | +2% |
| West High | Public | 1747 | 44.9% | -11% |
| Dominguez Senior High School | Public | 1616 | 31.8% | +0% |
| North High | Public | 1847 | 28.8% | +7% |
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 | 3.81 | 18.8% | 11.8% | +7.0pp | Over |
| UCLA | 3.79 | 11.6% | 9.0% | +2.6pp | On target |
| UC San Diego | 3.69 | 35.1% | 28.6% | +6.5pp | Over |
| UC Santa Barbara | 3.63 | 34.6% | 28.5% | +6.1pp | Over |
| UC Irvine | 3.74 | 19.0% | 18.6% | +0.4pp | On target |
| UC Davis | 3.74 | 31.0% | 32.1% | -1.0pp | On target |
Where Carson High School sits vs. all California schools ⓘ
Overall, this school admits its UC applicants in line with what their GPAs predict (22.9% actual vs. 19.4% 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 | 48 | 9 | 5 | 18.8% | 2.8% | 55.6% | 3.81 | 4.18 |
| UCLA → Elite | 69 | 8 | 4 | 11.6% | 2.5% | 50.0% | 3.79 | 4.20 |
| UC San Diego → Selective | 57 | 20 | 4 | 35.1% | 6.2% | 20.0% | 3.69 | 4.18 |
| UC Santa Barbara → Selective | 26 | 9 | — | 34.6% | 2.8% | — | 3.63 | 4.17 |
| UC Irvine → Selective | 63 | 12 | 4 | 19.0% | 3.8% | 33.3% | 3.74 | 4.22 |
| UC Davis → | 29 | 9 | — | 31.0% | 2.8% | — | 3.74 | 4.17 |