Charter School of San Diego
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Most similar nearby schools
University City High → Mission Bay High → Canyon Hills High School → LA Jolla High → Preuss School UCSD → Compare all similar →Enrollment trend & projection
If this trend holds (-1.5%/yr, Total enrollment)
At per-pupil funding of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Funding impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2027) | ~1,248 | -20 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2029) | ~1,210 | -58 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2031) | ~1,173 | -95 | $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 San Diego County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.
Enrollment -77.0% vs. county -7.8% AND stability (48.2%) below the county median. Recruitment and retention both under pressure — likely a foundational rather than tactical problem.
1,091 of 2,105 students who enrolled at Charter School of San Diego this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (51.8% 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.
Absenteeism is down 11.2 pp since 2016-17. Engagement improving — a positive trajectory worth understanding and reinforcing.
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 — San Diego 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: 65.2%
Federal: 10.6%
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 San Diego 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).
-26.8 pp vs. peer median (29.5%) · Ranked #11 of 11 similar schools
18.6%
29.5%
53.4%
2.7%
Higher than 1% of California high schools (1142 ranked, ≥50 seniors)
Charter School of San Diego's UC Reach of 2.7% is below the California median (18.6%). The top 10% of CA schools achieve 53.4% or higher.
But in San Diego County, where the local median is 24.8% and the top-10% bar is 54.8%, this score is mid-pack rather than exceptional — typical of its market rather than a standout.
Against similar schools, Charter School of San Diego trails the peer-group median (29.5%) — even though it looks strong vs. the state average.
Overall, Charter School of San Diego's UC Reach is higher than 1% of California high schools (1142 ranked).
Charter School of San Diego — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot
Public · San Diego · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools
- ▸On UC Reach, Charter School of San Diego sits near the bottom of its similar-school group (ranked #11 of 11): 3% vs. a peer median of 30%.
- ▸Its UC Reach has risen 2 points since 2019.
- ▸Senior-class enrollment is down 77% (647→149 from 2018 to 2026), trailing the peer-group median of -2%.
- ▸At its recent rate (-1.5%/yr), enrollment projects to ~1210 by 2029 — about 58 fewer students than today.
Enrollment projection
That's about 58 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charter School of San Diego | Public | 1268 | 2.7% | -77% |
| Peer-group median | 29.5% | -2% | ||
| University City High | Public | 1445 | 33.0% | -26% |
| Mission Bay High | Public | 1280 | 26.0% | +38% |
| Canyon Hills High School | Public | 1160 | 20.6% | -26% |
| LA Jolla High | Public | 1147 | 62.5% | -22% |
| Preuss School UCSD | Public | 825 | 86.1% | +17% |
| Scripps Ranch High | Public | 1920 | 42.8% | -3% |
| Mt Carmel High School | Public | 1818 | 22.3% | +2% |
| Canyon Crest Academy | Public | 1977 | 92.7% | -5% |
| Crawford High School | Public | 1361 | 21.4% | +22% |
| Mira Mesa High School | Public | 2147 | 22.1% | -0% |
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 San Diego | 3.78 | 38.5% | 27.0% | +11.5pp | Over |
UC Outcomes Trend — 2019–2024
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 — 2024
| Campus | Applicants | Admits | Enrollees | Admit Rate | UC Reach | Yield | Avg GPA (App) | Avg GPA (Adm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley → Elite | 9 | — | — | — | — | — | 3.81 | — |
| UCLA → Elite | 10 | — | — | — | — | — | 3.81 | — |
| UC San Diego → Selective | 13 | 5 | 3 | 38.5% | 2.7% | 60.0% | 3.78 | 4.10 |
| UC Irvine → Selective | 9 | — | — | — | — | — | 3.80 | — |
| UC Davis → | 5 | — | — | — | — | — | 3.39 | — |