No UC admissions data on file for Desert Junior-Senior High.
This school doesn't appear in UCOP's source-school records (it may send few or no applicants to UC). Its enrollment trend and similar-school comparison are still below.
Compare with peers
Most similar nearby schools
California City High School → Desert Winds Continuation High → Mojave Jr./Sr. High → Desert Sands Charter → Rosamond High Early College Campus → Compare all similar →📋 At a glance
- 📚 6 AP courses offered — Strong
- 🔢 1 calculus classes · 1 physics · 8 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 54th percentile nationally
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 92% (60th percentile nationally)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Desert Junior-Senior High compares for families
Solid mid-tier academic profile.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor at the 54th percentile nationally with 6 AP courses.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: California City High School, Desert Winds Continuation High, Mojave Jr./Sr. High and 2 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
🎓 Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Strong — solid AP program + advanced courses
54th 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 · 2020-21Source: 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?
60th 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.
🏛️ Federal Title I context
Lower-need school
Not Title I eligible (FRPL < 25%)
<25% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. Well below the Title I threshold; expect a higher-income student body on average.
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.
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.
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 18.4 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).
Enrollment trend & projection
If this trend holds (+0.0%/yr, Total enrollment)
At per-pupil funding of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Funding impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2027) | ~507 | +0 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2029) | ~507 | +0 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2031) | ~507 | +0 | $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.
Desert Junior-Senior High — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot
Public · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools
- ▸Senior-class enrollment is down 12% (65→57 from 2018 to 2026), tracking the peer-group median of -12%.
Enrollment projection
Your school vs. its 10 most similar nearby schools
| School | Type | Size | UC Reach | Enroll. trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Desert Junior-Senior High | Public | 507 | — | -12% |
| Peer-group median | 9.6% | -12% | ||
| California City High School | Public | 613 | 10.2% | +6% |
| Desert Winds Continuation High | Public | 468 | — | -20% |
| Mojave Jr./Sr. High | Public | 368 | — | +27% |
| Desert Sands Charter | Public | 604 | — | -63% |
| Rosamond High Early College Campus | Public | 907 | — | +9% |
| R Rex Parris High School | Public | 418 | — | -39% |
| Soar High (students On Academic Rise) | Public | 720 | — | +60% |
| Boron Junior-Senior High | Public | 251 | — | -13% |
| Vasquez High School | Public | 417 | 9.0% | -10% |
| Encore Jr./Sr. High School For The Performing And Visual Arts | Public | 477 | — | -54% |
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 →
Enrollment stability & demand — 2024-25
Two complementary signals: retention (do students stay once enrolled?) and demand (are families choosing the school?). Read against the Kern County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.
Desert Junior-Senior High's enrollment is shrinking far faster than Kern County (school -12.3% vs. county +12.7%). Stability of 88.3% means every family you keep is one fewer; the leverage is at recruitment, not retention. This is the case the high stability number alone would hide. Chronic absenteeism is also at 30.8% (up +17.4 pts from 2016-17) — engagement and demand are both signaling decline.
37 of 315 students who enrolled at Desert Junior-Senior High this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (11.7% 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.
District financial profile — Muroc Joint 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: 6.3%
Federal: 71.4%
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 Muroc Joint 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).