Desert Learning Academy
📄 Shareable scorecard →Compare with peers
Most similar nearby schools
Mt San Jacinto High School → Summit High (continuation) → Amistad High (continuation) → Nova Academy-Coachella → La Familia Continuation High → Compare all similar →Enrollment trend & projection
If this trend holds (+1.8%/yr, Total enrollment)
At per-pupil funding of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Funding impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2027) | ~232 | +4 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2029) | ~241 | +13 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2031) | ~250 | +22 | $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 Riverside County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.
Enrollment down 5.6% vs. county -2.7%, AND stability (46.7%) below the county median. Fewer families are choosing the school, and the ones who do aren't staying through year-end.
129 of 242 students who enrolled at Desert Learning Academy this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (53.3% 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 down 50.4 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 — Palm Springs 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: 30.7%
Federal: 16.9%
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 Palm Springs 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).
Desert Learning Academy — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot
Public · Palm Springs · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools
- ▸Senior-class enrollment is down 6% (36→34 from 2018 to 2026), outpacing the peer-group median of -8%.
- ▸Enrollment has been growing (+1.8%/yr); projects to ~241 by 2029.
Enrollment projection
Your school vs. its 10 most similar nearby schools
| School | Type | Size | UC Reach | Enroll. trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Desert Learning Academy | Public | 228 | — | -6% |
| Peer-group median | 23.7% | -8% | ||
| Mt San Jacinto High School | Public | 310 | — | -17% |
| Summit High (continuation) | Public | 160 | — | -50% |
| Amistad High (continuation) | Public | 200 | — | +12% |
| Nova Academy-Coachella | Public | 205 | 23.7% | -21% |
| La Familia Continuation High | Public | 208 | — | +53% |
| Mountain View High | Public | 216 | — | +0% |
| Hamilton High School | Public | 473 | — | -25% |
| Black Rock Alternative/Continuation | Public | 125 | — | -25% |
| Glen View High | Public | 148 | — | +26% |
| San Jacinto Middle College High | Public | 136 | — | +2300% |
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UCLA → Elite | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| UC Santa Barbara → Selective | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| UC Irvine → Selective | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |