Pierce High School
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Most similar nearby schools
Colusa High School → Williams Junior/Senior High → Sutter High School → Esparto High School → Live Oak High School → Compare all similar →Enrollment trend & projection
If this trend holds (+0.1%/yr, Total enrollment)
At per-pupil funding of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Funding impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2027) | ~441 | +1 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2029) | ~442 | +2 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2031) | ~443 | +3 | $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 Colusa County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.
Families who enroll at Pierce High School stay (93.9% stability — elite). But enrollment is dropping faster than Colusa County (school +20.6% vs. county +24.8%). The audit question isn't why students leave — it's why fewer families are choosing to enroll in the first place.
29 of 472 students who enrolled at Pierce High School this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (6.1% 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 4.5 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 — Pierce Joint 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: 32.0%
Federal: 12.4%
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 Pierce Joint 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).
+2.7 pp above peer median (6.2%) · Ranked #3 of 9 similar schools
18.5%
6.2%
53.3%
8.9%
Higher than 15% of California high schools (1105 ranked, ≥50 seniors)
Pierce High School's UC Reach of 8.9% is below the California median (18.5%). The top 10% of CA schools achieve 53.3% or higher.
Overall, Pierce High School's UC Reach is higher than 15% of California high schools (1105 ranked).
Pierce High School — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot
Public · Arbuckle · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools
- ▸On UC Reach, Pierce High School sits in the middle of its similar-school group (ranked #3 of 9): 9% vs. a peer median of 6%.
- ▸Its UC Reach has risen 6 points since 2019.
- ▸Senior-class enrollment is up 21% (102→123 from 2018 to 2026), outpacing the peer-group median of +6%.
- ▸Enrollment has been growing (+0.1%/yr); projects to ~442 by 2029.
Enrollment projection
Your school vs. its 10 most similar nearby schools
| School | Type | Size | UC Reach | Enroll. trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pierce High School | Public | 440 | 8.9% | +21% |
| Peer-group median | 6.2% | +6% | ||
| Colusa High School | Public | 413 | 2.8% | +31% |
| Williams Junior/Senior High | Public | 591 | — | +12% |
| Sutter High School | Public | 733 | 4.4% | -13% |
| Esparto High School | Public | 287 | 7.5% | -24% |
| Live Oak High School | Public | 598 | 32.9% | +20% |
| Winters High School | Public | 472 | 9.9% | +8% |
| Middletown High School | Public | 417 | 7.0% | -13% |
| East Nicolaus High School | Public | 307 | 5.3% | +4% |
| Sutter Peak Charter Academy | Public | 804 | — | +115% |
| Willows High School | Public | 419 | 5.5% | +0% |
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 Santa Barbara | 3.86 | 44.4% | 27.5% | +17.0pp | Over |
| UC Davis | 3.83 | 43.8% | 32.1% | +11.7pp | 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 | 10 | — | — | — | — | — | 3.85 | — |
| UCLA → Elite | 11 | — | — | — | — | — | 3.83 | — |
| UC Santa Barbara → Selective | 9 | 4 | — | 44.4% | 3.2% | — | 3.86 | — |
| UC Davis → | 16 | 7 | 3 | 43.8% | 5.6% | 42.9% | 3.83 | 4.05 |