Madison High

· San Diego County · San Diego Unified
Public San Diego County 🏛 San Diego Unified → ~204 seniors CDS 3768338…
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Compare with peers

Most similar nearby schools

Clairemont High School → Preuss School UCSD → High Tech High Mesa → Health Sciences High And Middle College → Canyon Hills High School → Compare all similar →

Enrollment trend & projection

Total enrollment (9–12)
1,023 (2018)753 (2026)
-26.4%
Grade 12 (graduating class)
243 (2018)204 (2026)
-16.0%

If this trend holds (-3.8%/yr, Total enrollment)

At per-pupil funding of $ / student:

Horizon Projected Total enrollment Change Funding impact / yr
1 yr (2027) ~725 -28 $0
3 yr (2029) ~671 -82 $0
5 yr (2031) ~622 -131 $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.

Action needed
Strong inside, weak at the gate.

Families who enroll at Madison High stay (91.3% stability — elite). But enrollment is dropping 2.1× the county rate (school -16.0% vs. county -7.8%). The audit question isn't why students leave — it's why fewer families are choosing to enroll in the first place.

-16.0%  school enrollment (2018–2026)
-7.8%  San Diego County baseline
-8.2pp  gap vs. county
91.3%  retention (county median 88.5%)
Enrollment — indexed to 100 at 2018
Stability rate by year (raw %)
Stability rate
91.3%
745 of 816 students

71 of 816 students who enrolled at Madison High this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (8.7% non-stability). Mid-year transfers, dropouts, and other exits are all counted.

San Diego County median
88.5% · school is in the 67th percentile of 121 HS
Statewide median
87.2% · in the 73rd percentile of 1,688 HS

Stability by student group

Socio. disadvantaged (666) 90.5%
Hispanic / Latino (518) 92.3%
Students w/ disabilities (217) 92.2%
White (99) 91.9%
Black / African Am. (73) 83.6%
Two or more races (71) 93.0%

Nearest peer high schools

Clairemont High School 85.6% Preuss School UCSD 96.0% Health Sciences High And Middle College 87.4% Canyon Hills High School 88.3%

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.

Chronic absent
22.0%
177 of 804 students

Absenteeism is up 8.4 pp since 2016-17. A rising absenteeism trend often precedes formal departure — worth investigating which subgroups are driving it.

San Diego County median
18.9% · school is worse than 56% of 117 HS
Statewide median
22.9%
Chronic absenteeism by year (raw %)

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.

ELA — met or exceeded
n = 206
45.1%
incl. 15.5% exceeded
-15.5 pts vs. San Diego County median (60.6%) · CA median 54.3% · Top 10% statewide ≥ 79.3%
Math — met or exceeded
n = 205
24.4%
incl. 8.8% exceeded
On the San Diego County median (24.4%) · CA median 21.1% · Top 10% statewide ≥ 53.6%

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

Hispanic / Latino 63%
White 12%
Two or more 10% +1.5
Black / African Am. 7% -3.7
Asian 4% +1.0
Filipino 2%
Pacific Islander 1%

Program subgroups

Students w/ disabilities 76%
Socioeconomically disadv. 24% -2.6
Homeless 10%
English learners 6%

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.

Total revenue
$2239.7M
+17.1% since FY2017
Per-pupil revenue
$22,861
97,968 students enrolled
Revenue mix
State: 24.2%
Local: 65.2%
Federal: 10.6%
Instruction share
58.6%
of current spending · $9,592/pupil
Long-term debt
$5186.5M
+29.3% since FY2017
Total revenue by year ($M)
Total expenditure by year ($M)

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).

University of California outcomes · Class of 2025
UC Reach
8%
17 admits / 204 seniors
-19.3 pp vs. peer median (27.6%) · Ranked #8 of 9 similar schools
5-year trend
2021 · 15.3% 2025 · 8.3%
Where this sits on the California curve
CA median
18.5%
Peer median
27.6%
Top 10%
53.3%
This school
8.3%
0%50%100%
CA median 18.5% Top 10% ≥ 53.3% This school 8.3%

Higher than 13% of California high schools (1105 ranked, ≥50 seniors)

📊 What this number means

Madison High's UC Reach of 8.3% is below the California median (18.5%). The top 10% of CA schools achieve 53.3% or higher.

Against similar schools, Madison High trails the peer-group median (27.6%) — even though it looks strong vs. the state average.

Overall, Madison High's UC Reach is higher than 13% of California high schools (1105 ranked).

UC Application Reach
48.0%
98 applications
In context: CA median 78.3% · Top 10% statewide ≥ 245.8% · San Diego Co. Top 10% ≥ 216.5% · higher than 26% of CA HS.
UC Admit Rate
17.3%
17 / 98 applications
In context: CA median 26.0% · Top 10% statewide ≥ 40.5% · higher than 5% of CA HS.
UC Yield Rate
41.2%
7 enrolled of 17 admitted
Yield vs. Enrollment Reach: Yield answers "of UC admits, what % chose UC?" — denominator is just the admits. A small admitted cohort can post a low yield even when the school sends a healthy share of its class to UC.
UC Enrollment Reach
3.4%
7 enrollees / 204 seniors
Enrollment Reach vs. Yield: Reach answers "of the whole senior class, what % ended up at UC?" — denominator is everyone. High Yield with low Enrollment Reach is common at elite privates: most admits matriculate, but the school sends most of its class to non-UC selective colleges.
Student-Counselor Ratio
188:1
4.0 FTE counselors · 753 students
In context: CA median 338:1 · 150 fewer students per counselor · ASCA target 250:1.
A-G Completion
70%
131 of 187 graduates · 2024-25 cohort
In context: CA median 55.9% · +14.2 pp above · San Diego Co. 63.4%.
Selective UC Reach (UCSD, UCSB, UCI, UCD)
8.3
per 100 seniors · campus-level total
In context: CA median 15.7 · Top 10% statewide ≥ 42.4 · higher than 16% of CA HS.
Elite UC Reach (UCB + UCLA)
N/A
Senior Class Size
204
CDE grade 12 (exact)
Total School Enrollment
780
All grades · CDE Census Day
Economic Connectedness
0.97
44th percentile in CA · cross‑class friendships

Madison High — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot

Public · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools

  • On UC Reach, Madison High sits near the bottom of its similar-school group (ranked #8 of 9): 8% vs. a peer median of 28%.
  • Its UC Reach has slipped 13 points since 2018 — worth watching.
  • Senior-class enrollment is down 16% (243→204 from 2018 to 2026), trailing the peer-group median of -13%.
  • At its recent rate (-3.8%/yr), enrollment projects to ~671 by 2029 — about 82 fewer students than today.

Enrollment projection

753 students (2026)
~671 projected (2029)
at -3.8%/yr

That's about 82 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
Madison High Public 753 8.3% -16%
Peer-group median 27.6% -13%
Clairemont High School Public 804 12.0% -6%
Preuss School UCSD Public 825 86.1% +17%
High Tech High Mesa Public 432 38.8% +3%
Health Sciences High And Middle College Public 552 -13%
Canyon Hills High School Public 1160 20.6% -26%
John Muir Language Academy Public 418
LA Jolla High Public 1147 62.5% -22%
Mission Bay High Public 1280 26.0% +38%
Coronado High School Public 990 29.3% -14%
Charter School of San Diego Public 1268 2.7% -77%

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 →

Avg. Applicant GPA · top-6 UCs
3.87
Avg. Admitted GPA · top-6 UCs
4.21

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 3.86 37.9% 23.2% +14.7pp Over
UC Santa Barbara 3.81 54.5% 26.6% +27.9pp Over
"Applicant GPA" is the average GPA of this school's UC applicant pool — not an individual student GPA. "CA peer avg" is the application-weighted statewide admit rate at this school-pool GPA, fit separately per campus. At any given pool GPA, real admit rates span widely (UCSD ranges 8% → 65% across CA schools) because UCs use comprehensive review — context-of-opportunity, geography, demographics, and applicant essays all weigh in beyond GPA. A large negative residual flags this school is admitted at a meaningfully lower rate than other CA schools at the same pool GPA — not that students here were "rejected at expected rate X." "Over" / "Under" use a ±5-point band. Campuses with fewer than 5 applicants are omitted.

UC Outcomes Trend — 2018–2025

UC Admit Rate %
UC Reach % (where available)
UC Admits (count, right axis)

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 14 3.83
UCLA → Elite 21 4.02
UC San Diego → Selective 29 11 7 37.9% 5.4% 63.6% 3.86 4.23
UC Santa Barbara → Selective 11 6 54.5% 2.9% 3.81 4.19
UC Irvine → Selective 16 3.90
UC Davis → 7 3.62
⚠ Campus-level totals may count one student admitted to multiple UC campuses more than once. Admit Volume metrics are not the same as UC Reach, which requires unique-student counts. See methodology →

What This Means

A large share of the senior class applies to UC, indicating strong college-going culture and UC pipeline development.
A large share of the class applies to UC, so the admit rate runs lower than the application volume alone might suggest — expected when many students apply broadly, including to reach campuses. UC Reach (which credits every admit relative to the class) is the truer read of how the class fares: a strong Reach alongside a moderate admit rate is healthy, not a contradiction.
Fewer than 15% of seniors are earning UC admission. This may reflect a high non-UC college-going rate, significant A-G completion gaps, or an early-stage UC pipeline. A deeper review of A-G readiness and counseling capacity is warranted.
Students are earning UC admission but enrolling elsewhere at a notable rate. This may reflect competition from private colleges, out-of-state flagships, cost considerations, or UC campus fit. Student outcome surveys can clarify.
UC Reach has declined meaningfully year-over-year. This should be reviewed in context of applicant volume, GPA trends, course rigor changes, and peer-school performance before drawing conclusions.
Note: admit counts used here are campus-level totals. A student admitted to both UCLA and UCSD is counted twice. When UCOP unique-student data becomes available it will be loaded automatically and the labels will update.
Compare with other schools → See San Diego County rankings →

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