Design Tech High School
📄 Shareable scorecard →Compare with peers
Most similar nearby schools
Summit Preparatory Charter High → Aspire East Palo Alto Charter → Hayward Twin Oaks Montessori → Kipp King Collegiate High Sch → Impact Academy Of Arts & Technology → Compare all similar →Enrollment trend & projection
If this trend holds (+0.2%/yr, Total enrollment)
At per-pupil funding of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Funding impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2027) | ~564 | +1 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2029) | ~567 | +4 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2031) | ~570 | +7 | $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 Mateo County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.
Design Tech High School outperformed San Mateo County on enrollment (school +1.6% vs. county -5.3%) AND maintains 97.4% stability. Replicable model — worth documenting what's working.
15 of 567 students who enrolled at Design Tech High School this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (2.6% 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 5.6 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 Mateo Union High (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: 85.0%
Federal: 3.6%
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 Mateo Union High 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).
+40.0 pp above peer median (29.6%) · Ranked #1 of 6 similar schools
18.5%
29.6%
53.3%
69.6%
Higher than 96% of California high schools (1105 ranked, ≥50 seniors)
Design Tech High School's UC Reach of 69.6% clears the statewide top-10% cutoff (53.3%) — meaning roughly 69 top-6 UC admits per 100 seniors, well above what most California schools achieve.
In San Mateo County — a competitive market where the median is already 29.6% — this still clears the county top-10% bar (65.8%).
Against similar schools, Design Tech High School stands out clearly — the peer-group median is 29.6%.
For context, the elite tier (top 1%) clears 102.7% — a gap of 33 pp from where this school sits.
Overall, Design Tech High School's UC Reach is higher than 96% of California high schools (1105 ranked).
Design Tech High School — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot
Public · Redwood City · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools
- ▸On UC Reach, Design Tech High School sits near the top of its similar-school group (ranked #1 of 6): 70% vs. a peer median of 30%.
- ▸Its UC Reach has risen 38 points since 2018.
- ▸Senior-class enrollment is up 2% (128→130 from 2018 to 2026), trailing the peer-group median of +7%.
- ▸Enrollment has been growing (+0.2%/yr); projects to ~567 by 2029.
Enrollment projection
Your school vs. its 10 most similar nearby schools
| School | Type | Size | UC Reach | Enroll. trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Design Tech High School | Public | 563 | 69.6% | +2% |
| Peer-group median | 29.6% | +7% | ||
| Summit Preparatory Charter High | Public | 380 | — | +38% |
| Aspire East Palo Alto Charter | Public | 449 | — | -46% |
| Hayward Twin Oaks Montessori | Public | 583 | 7.3% | +56% |
| Kipp King Collegiate High Sch | Public | 671 | 57.6% | +40% |
| Impact Academy Of Arts & Technology | Public | 688 | — | -35% |
| Connecting Waters Charter - East Bay | Public | 518 | — | +244% |
| Madison Park Academy 6-12 | Public | 620 | — | +20% |
| Terra Nova High School | Public | 713 | 10.1% | -36% |
| Half Moon Bay High School | Public | 834 | 29.6% | -6% |
| Oceana High School | Public | 450 | 50.7% | -26% |
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 | 4.08 | 16.7% | 14.3% | +2.4pp | On target |
| UCLA | 4.09 | 8.3% | 9.7% | -1.4pp | On target |
| UC San Diego | 4.06 | 30.9% | 18.8% | +12.1pp | Over |
| UC Santa Barbara | 4.07 | 30.4% | 37.2% | -6.8pp | Under |
| UC Irvine | 4.08 | 15.9% | 29.7% | -13.9pp | Under |
| UC Davis | 4.05 | 32.4% | 33.3% | -0.9pp | On target |
Where Design Tech High School sits vs. all California schools ⓘ
Overall, this school admits its UC applicants in line with what their GPAs predict (22.6% actual vs. 23.4% 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 | 72 | 12 | 9 | 16.7% | 8.7% | 75.0% | 4.08 | 4.18 |
| UCLA → Elite | 72 | 6 | 4 | 8.3% | 4.3% | 66.7% | 4.09 | 4.24 |
| UC San Diego → Selective | 81 | 25 | — | 30.9% | 18.1% | — | 4.06 | 4.22 |
| UC Santa Barbara → Selective | 69 | 21 | — | 30.4% | 15.2% | — | 4.07 | 4.25 |
| UC Irvine → Selective | 63 | 10 | — | 15.9% | 7.2% | — | 4.08 | 4.21 |
| UC Davis → | 68 | 22 | 5 | 32.4% | 15.9% | 22.7% | 4.05 | 4.23 |