Kearny Digital Media & Design
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Most similar nearby schools
Kearny College Connections → Kearny Eng Innov & Design → High Tech High Media Arts → High Tech High International → E3 Civic High → Compare all similar →Enrollment trend & projection
If this trend holds (-2.4%/yr, Total enrollment)
At per-pupil funding of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Funding impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2027) | ~327 | -8 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2029) | ~312 | -23 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2031) | ~297 | -38 | $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 Diego County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.
Enrollment growth is beating San Diego County (+2.4% vs. -7.8%), but 122 of 377 students didn't maintain continuous enrollment. Why are families leaving once enrolled?
122 of 377 students who enrolled at Kearny Digital Media & Design this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (32.4% 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 8.9 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 — San Diego 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: 65.2%
Federal: 10.6%
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 Diego 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).
-3.5 pp vs. peer median (19.2%) · Ranked #5 of 7 similar schools
18.5%
53.3%
15.7%
Higher than 43% of California high schools (1105 ranked, ≥50 seniors)
Kearny Digital Media & Design's UC Reach of 15.7% is below the California median (18.5%). The top 10% of CA schools achieve 53.3% or higher.
Overall, Kearny Digital Media & Design's UC Reach is higher than 43% of California high schools (1105 ranked).
Kearny Digital Media & Design — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot
Public · San Diego · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools
- ▸On UC Reach, Kearny Digital Media & Design sits in the middle of its similar-school group (ranked #5 of 7): 16% vs. a peer median of 19%.
- ▸Its UC Reach has risen 10 points since 2018.
- ▸Senior-class enrollment is up 2% (82→84 from 2018 to 2026), outpacing the peer-group median of -7%.
- ▸At its recent rate (-2.4%/yr), enrollment projects to ~312 by 2029 — about 23 fewer students than today.
Enrollment projection
That's about 23 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kearny Digital Media & Design | Public | 335 | 15.7% | +2% |
| Peer-group median | 19.2% | -7% | ||
| Kearny College Connections | Public | 319 | 19.1% | -8% |
| Kearny Eng Innov & Design | Public | 283 | 7.7% | +10% |
| High Tech High Media Arts | Public | 346 | 36.7% | -6% |
| High Tech High International | Public | 348 | 19.3% | -13% |
| E3 Civic High | Public | 344 | 10.5% | -7% |
| America's Finest Charter | Public | 334 | — | -6% |
| High Tech High Mesa | Public | 432 | 38.8% | +3% |
| John Muir Language Academy | Public | 418 | — | — |
| Urban Discovery Academy Charter | Public | 310 | — | -33% |
| Diego Hills Central Public Charter | Public | 301 | — | -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 →
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 San Diego | 3.88 | 50.0% | 22.7% | +27.3pp | Over |
| UC Santa Barbara | 4.06 | 50.0% | 36.4% | +13.6pp | Over |
| UC Davis | 3.93 | 60.0% | 32.4% | +27.6pp | Over |
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 | 7 | — | — | — | — | — | 3.91 | — |
| UCLA → Elite | 11 | — | — | — | — | — | 3.92 | — |
| UC San Diego → Selective | 14 | 7 | 4 | 50.0% | 8.4% | 57.1% | 3.88 | 4.20 |
| UC Santa Barbara → Selective | 6 | 3 | — | 50.0% | 3.6% | — | 4.06 | — |
| UC Irvine → Selective | 7 | — | — | — | — | — | 3.87 | — |
| UC Davis → | 5 | 3 | — | 60.0% | 3.6% | — | 3.93 | — |