John F Kennedy High School
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Most similar nearby schools
Cerritos High School → Norwalk High School → Bellflower High School → Lakewood High School → Cypress High School → Compare all similar →Enrollment trend & projection
If this trend holds (-2.7%/yr, Total enrollment)
At per-pupil funding of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Funding impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2027) | ~1,939 | -53 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2029) | ~1,837 | -155 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2031) | ~1,741 | -251 | $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 Orange County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.
Enrollment is shrinking 1.9× the county rate (school -13.4% vs. county -7.1%) with stability (92.0%) near the county median. Two problems compounding — the recruitment side is the higher-leverage starting point.
165 of 2,072 students who enrolled at John F Kennedy High School this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (8.0% 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 12.7 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 — Anaheim 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: 29.4%
Federal: 12.8%
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 Anaheim 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).
-1.7 pp vs. peer median (15.0%) · Ranked #6 of 10 similar schools
18.5%
53.3%
13.3%
Higher than 33% of California high schools (1105 ranked, ≥50 seniors)
John F Kennedy High School's UC Reach of 13.3% is below the California median (18.5%). The top 10% of CA schools achieve 53.3% or higher.
But in Orange County, where the local median is 25.0% and the top-10% bar is 71.2%, this score is mid-pack rather than exceptional — typical of its market rather than a standout.
Overall, John F Kennedy High School's UC Reach is higher than 33% of California high schools (1105 ranked).
John F Kennedy High School — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot
Public · La Palma · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools
- ▸On UC Reach, John F Kennedy High School sits in the middle of its similar-school group (ranked #6 of 10): 13% vs. a peer median of 15%.
- ▸Its UC Reach has slipped 4 points since 2018 — worth watching.
- ▸Senior-class enrollment is down 13% (606→525 from 2018 to 2026), tracking the peer-group median of -13%.
- ▸At its recent rate (-2.7%/yr), enrollment projects to ~1837 by 2029 — about 155 fewer students than today.
Enrollment projection
That's about 155 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| John F Kennedy High School | Public | 1992 | 13.3% | -13% |
| Peer-group median | 15.0% | -13% | ||
| Cerritos High School | Public | 1954 | 48.4% | -1% |
| Norwalk High School | Public | 1962 | 11.0% | -6% |
| Bellflower High School | Public | 1959 | 15.0% | -13% |
| Lakewood High School | Public | 2092 | 11.9% | -26% |
| Cypress High School | Public | 2548 | 30.5% | -2% |
| Fullerton Union High School | Public | 1921 | 20.9% | -13% |
| Mayfair High School | Public | 2293 | 10.0% | +1% |
| Gahr (richard) High | Public | 1648 | — | -26% |
| LA Mirada High School | Public | 1689 | 12.7% | -14% |
| Garden Grove High School | Public | 2103 | 33.6% | -19% |
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 | 3.95 | 8.9% | 12.1% | -3.2pp | On target |
| UCLA | 3.84 | 6.3% | 9.0% | -2.6pp | On target |
| UC San Diego | 3.83 | 17.4% | 24.2% | -6.8pp | Under |
| UC Santa Barbara | 3.84 | 25.4% | 27.1% | -1.7pp | On target |
| UC Irvine | 3.78 | 12.4% | 19.4% | -7.0pp | Under |
| UC Davis | 3.76 | 28.9% | 32.0% | -3.1pp | On target |
Where John F Kennedy High School sits vs. all California schools ⓘ
Overall, this school admits its UC applicants in line with what their GPAs predict (15.0% actual vs. 19.6% 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 | 45 | 4 | 3 | 8.9% | 0.8% | 75.0% | 3.95 | — |
| UCLA → Elite | 95 | 6 | — | 6.3% | 1.1% | — | 3.84 | 4.21 |
| UC San Diego → Selective | 92 | 16 | 5 | 17.4% | 3.0% | 31.2% | 3.83 | 4.18 |
| UC Santa Barbara → Selective | 67 | 17 | 3 | 25.4% | 3.2% | 17.6% | 3.84 | 4.20 |
| UC Irvine → Selective | 129 | 16 | 7 | 12.4% | 3.0% | 43.8% | 3.78 | 4.12 |
| UC Davis → | 38 | 11 | — | 28.9% | 2.1% | — | 3.76 | 4.05 |