Nipomo High School
Nipomo · San Luis Obispo County · Lucia Mar Unified · Public
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- 📚 11 AP courses offered — Elite
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🔢 1 calculus classes · 3 physics · 9 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 82th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 27% by test-taker volume
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 93% (67th percentile nationally)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Nipomo High School compares for families
Real college outcomes data available below.
- ▸ Statewide8.9% UC Reach — 9.2 points below the California median of 18.1%.
- ▸ Locally📘 Top 6 in San Luis Obispo County on ELA proficiency — plus 1 more top-rank.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsTrails the peer median (8.9% UC Reach vs 15.0% median) across the 5 most similar nearby schools.
🎓 Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Elite — exceptional AP + advanced course breadth
82th percentile nationally
✅ Gifted/talented program
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). CRDC reports what's offered + enrolled — it doesn't collect AP exam pass rates (College Board owns that data and doesn't release it school-level).
SAT / ACT participation
CRDC federal data · 2020-21Bottom 27% by test-taker volume
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). Volume — not score — is what's reported here. A higher count means more students at this school are entering the college admissions pipeline. Note: 2020-21 was COVID-disrupted; some districts (especially those that stayed remote longer) report unusually low or zero takers.
🎓 4-year graduation rate · federal EDFacts
What % of students graduate on time?
67th percentile nationally
Source: federal EDFacts ACGR (Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate), 2019 vintage via Urban Institute. EDFacts publishes a range (low-high) to preserve privacy on small cohorts; we display the midpoint.
🏛️ Federal Title I context
Title I Schoolwide eligible
≥40% FRPL — qualifies for Title I Schoolwide program
40-74% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. The district can use Title I funds across the whole school under federal Schoolwide Program rules.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data, free/reduced-price lunch eligibility. The actual Title I designation is a district decision and may differ from eligibility — but the federal eligibility math is what we show here. We don't claim to assert whether the district formally chose to enroll this school in Title I.
Nipomo High School sent 51 applications to the six most selective University of California campuses and 33.3% were admitted, producing a UC Reach of 8.9% — 9.2 percentage points below the California median of 18.1%, higher than 13% of California high schools..
-6.1 pp vs. peer median (15.0%) · Ranked #9 of 10 similar schools
18.1%
51.2%
8.9%
Higher than 13% of California high schools (978 ranked, ≥50 seniors)
Nipomo High School's UC Reach of 8.9% is below the California median (18.1%). The top 10% of CA schools achieve 51.2% or higher.
Overall, Nipomo High School's UC Reach is higher than 13% of California high schools (978 ranked).
UC funnel — which kids are getting in at what GPA
Combining the school's applicant pool GPA, admit pool GPA, actual admit rate, and statewide CA admit rates by individual GPA band, we can read which GPA tiers tend to get in — and which don't.
| Campus | 4.00+ GPA | 3.70–3.99 GPA | 3.30–3.69 GPA | < 3.30 GPA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC San Diego | Strong shot | Moderate | Long odds | Filtered out |
| UC Santa Barbara | Strong shot | Real shot | Long odds | Filtered out |
| UC Davis | Strong shot | Strong shot | Real shot | Filtered out |
The numbers behind it
| Campus | Applicant GPA | Admit GPA | Lift ⓘ | Admit rate | vs peer schools @ same GPA ⓘ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC San Diego (2024) | 3.84 | 4.15 | +0.31 | 43.5% | Peers +0.33 · matches |
| UC Santa Barbara | 4.00 | 4.18 | +0.18 | 54.5% | Peers +0.27 · wider |
| UC Davis (2024) | 3.96 | 4.09 | +0.13 | 73.3% | Peers +0.23 · wider |
📊 Statewide CA admit rates by individual GPA band, 2025 (for reference)
| GPA band | UCB | UCLA | UCSD | UCSB | UCI | UCD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.00+ | 17.0% | 15.1% | 45.2% | 62.3% | 46.3% | 65.9% |
| 3.70–3.99 | 3.1% | 1.6% | 9.3% | 17.6% | 17.0% | 31.1% |
| 3.30–3.69 | 0.8% | 0.5% | 1.5% | 2.8% | 2.4% | 10.3% |
| 3.00–3.29 | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.4% | 0.3% | 1.9% |
| < 3.00 | 0.7% | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.7% |
Where Nipomo High School sits vs. all California schools ⓘ
Overall, this school admits its UC applicants 18.0 points above what their GPAs predict (45.9% actual vs. 28.0% 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 | 7 | —† | —† | —† | —† | — | 4.01 | —† |
| UCLA → Elite | 7 | —† | —† | —† | —† | — | 3.88 | —† |
| UC San Diego → Selective | 11 | 4 | —† | 36.4% | 2.1% | — | 3.93 | —† |
| UC Santa Barbara → Selective | 11 | 6 | —† | 54.5% | 3.1% | — | 4.00 | 4.18 |
| UC Irvine → Selective | 7 | 3 | —† | 42.9% | 1.6% | — | 3.96 | —† |
| UC Davis → | 8 | 4 | —† | 50.0% | 2.1% | — | 4.02 | —† |
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.
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 8.6 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).
Enrollment trend & projection
If this trend holds (-1.2%/yr, Total enrollment)
At per-pupil funding of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Funding impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2027) | ~823 | -10 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2029) | ~803 | -30 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2031) | ~783 | -50 | $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.
Nipomo High School — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot
Public · Nipomo · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools
- ▸On UC Reach, Nipomo High School sits near the bottom of its similar-school group (ranked #9 of 10): 9% vs. a peer median of 15%.
- ▸Nipomo High School's UC Reach has stepped down from a peak of 16% in 2024 to 9% in 2025 — a 7-point decline worth tracking.
- ▸Across the top-6 UC campuses, Nipomo High School is admitting at roughly +18 percentage points above what its average applicant GPA (3.976) alone would predict (46% actual vs. 28% expected). That's a meaningful signal — it can reflect UC's track record with this school's graduates, students presenting strongly in UC's holistic review (essays, EC's, context), or institutional familiarity helping at the margin. The data can't distinguish which, but the pattern itself is real and worth understanding.
- ▸Senior-class enrollment is up 3% (190→196 from 2018 to 2026), tracking the peer-group median of +4%.
- ▸At its recent rate (-1.2%/yr), enrollment projects to ~803 by 2029 — about 30 fewer students than today.
Enrollment projection
That's about 30 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nipomo High School | Public | 833 | 8.9% | +3% |
| Peer-group median | 15.0% | +4% | ||
| Orcutt Academy Charter High School | Public | 796 | 32.5% | +22% |
| Central Coast New Tech High | Public | 314 | — | -4% |
| Arroyo Grande High School | Public | 1939 | 19.2% | -9% |
| Cabrillo High School | Public | 1064 | 12.3% | -14% |
| Morro Bay High School | Public | 771 | 25.7% | -8% |
| San Luis Obispo High School | Public | 1693 | 35.6% | +12% |
| Delta High School | Public | 310 | 3.5% | -27% |
| Ernest Righetti High School | Public | 2472 | 13.7% | +24% |
| Pioneer Valley High School | Public | 3011 | 15.0% | +16% |
| Santa Maria High School | Public | 3094 | 15.0% | +21% |
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 →
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 Luis Obispo County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.
Nipomo High School is recruiting families faster than San Luis Obispo County is shrinking (school +3.2% vs. county -1.4%), but 130 students didn't make it to year-end. The recruitment engine works; the mid-year exits are worth understanding. Chronic absenteeism is rising (22.5%, +8.6 pts since 2016-17) — a watch signal worth monitoring as a leading indicator.
130 of 888 students who enrolled at Nipomo High School this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (14.6% 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.
District financial profile — Lucia Mar 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: 62.3%
Federal: 10.4%
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 Lucia Mar 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).