Downey High School
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Most similar nearby schools
Warren (earl) High → Paramount High School → Mayfair High School → California High → Norwalk High School → Compare all similar →Enrollment trend & projection
If this trend holds (+0.4%/yr, Total enrollment)
At per-pupil funding of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Funding impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2027) | ~4,181 | +16 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2029) | ~4,212 | +47 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2031) | ~4,244 | +79 | $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.
Downey High School outperformed Los Angeles County on enrollment (school +5.2% vs. county -8.2%) AND maintains 91.4% stability. Replicable model — worth documenting what's working.
366 of 4,255 students who enrolled at Downey High School this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (8.6% 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 up 5.1 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 — Downey 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: 21.1%
Federal: 11.7%
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 Downey 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).
+2.9 pp above peer median (15.0%) · Ranked #4 of 10 similar schools
18.5%
53.3%
17.9%
Higher than 49% of California high schools (1105 ranked, ≥50 seniors)
Downey High School's UC Reach of 17.9% is below 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 85 pp from where this school sits.
Overall, Downey High School's UC Reach is higher than 49% of California high schools (1105 ranked).
Downey High School — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot
Public · Downey · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools
- ▸On UC Reach, Downey High School sits in the middle of its similar-school group (ranked #4 of 10): 18% vs. a peer median of 15%.
- ▸Its UC Reach has risen 4 points since 2018.
- ▸Senior-class enrollment is up 5% (935→984 from 2018 to 2026), outpacing the peer-group median of -14%.
- ▸Enrollment has been growing (+0.4%/yr); projects to ~4212 by 2029.
Enrollment projection
Your school vs. its 10 most similar nearby schools
| School | Type | Size | UC Reach | Enroll. trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Downey High School | Public | 4165 | 17.9% | +5% |
| Peer-group median | 15.0% | -14% | ||
| Warren (earl) High | Public | 3584 | — | -2% |
| Paramount High School | Public | 3370 | 11.8% | -27% |
| Mayfair High School | Public | 2293 | 10.0% | +1% |
| California High | Public | 2263 | 12.5% | -8% |
| Norwalk High School | Public | 1962 | 11.0% | -6% |
| Bellflower High School | Public | 1959 | 15.0% | -13% |
| Bell Gardens High | Public | 1912 | 16.3% | -31% |
| James a Garfield High School | Public | 2212 | 28.1% | -15% |
| Bell High School | Public | 2022 | 22.9% | -37% |
| El Rancho High School | Public | 1947 | 19.8% | -16% |
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 | 3.89 | 8.2% | 11.7% | -3.5pp | On target |
| UCLA | 3.86 | 10.1% | 8.9% | +1.1pp | On target |
| UC San Diego | 3.83 | 33.3% | 24.1% | +9.2pp | Over |
| UC Santa Barbara | 3.81 | 30.6% | 26.6% | +4.0pp | On target |
| UC Irvine | 3.78 | 18.8% | 19.6% | -0.7pp | On target |
| UC Davis | 3.73 | 36.9% | 32.1% | +4.9pp | On target |
Where Downey High School sits vs. all California schools ⓘ
Overall, this school admits its UC applicants in line with what their GPAs predict (21.7% actual vs. 19.3% 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 | 98 | 8 | 3 | 8.2% | 0.9% | 37.5% | 3.89 | 4.23 |
| UCLA → Elite | 159 | 16 | 12 | 10.1% | 1.7% | 75.0% | 3.86 | 4.22 |
| UC San Diego → Selective | 147 | 49 | 13 | 33.3% | 5.3% | 26.5% | 3.83 | 4.18 |
| UC Santa Barbara → Selective | 111 | 34 | 4 | 30.6% | 3.6% | 11.8% | 3.81 | 4.19 |
| UC Irvine → Selective | 191 | 36 | 11 | 18.8% | 3.9% | 30.6% | 3.78 | 4.12 |
| UC Davis → | 65 | 24 | 4 | 36.9% | 2.6% | 16.7% | 3.73 | 4.07 |