Rare Earth High (continuation)

· Kern County · Southern Kern Unified
Public Kern County 🏛 Southern Kern Unified → CDS 1563776…
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Compare with peers

Most similar nearby schools

Phoenix High Community Day → Monroe High (continuation) → Mt. Lukens Continuation → Mcgowan (robert) High (continuation) → Jane Addams Continuation → Compare all similar →

No UC admissions data on file for Rare Earth High (continuation).

This school doesn't appear in UCOP's source-school records (it may send few or no applicants to UC). Its enrollment trend and similar-school comparison are still below.

Enrollment trend & projection

Total enrollment (9–12)
52 (2018)40 (2026)
-23.1%
Grade 12 (graduating class)
24 (2018)21 (2026)
-12.5%

If this trend holds (-3.2%/yr, Total enrollment)

At per-pupil funding of $ / student:

Horizon Projected Total enrollment Change Funding impact / yr
1 yr (2027) ~39 -1 $0
3 yr (2029) ~36 -4 $0
5 yr (2031) ~34 -6 $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 Kern County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.

Critical
Compounding decline on both vectors.

Enrollment -12.5% vs. county +12.7% AND stability (28.4%) below the county median. Recruitment and retention both under pressure — likely a foundational rather than tactical problem. Chronic absenteeism is also at 86.7% (up +15.1 pts from 2016-17) — engagement and demand are both signaling decline.

-12.5%  school enrollment (2018–2026)
+12.7%  Kern County baseline
-25.2pp  gap vs. county
28.4%  retention (county median 84.4%)
Enrollment — indexed to 100 at 2018
Stability rate by year (raw %)
Stability rate
28.4%
25 of 88 students

63 of 88 students who enrolled at Rare Earth High (continuation) this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (71.6% non-stability). Mid-year transfers, dropouts, and other exits are all counted.

Kern County median
84.4% · school is in the 0th percentile of 47 HS
Statewide median
87.2% · in the 5th percentile of 1,688 HS

Stability by student group

Socio. disadvantaged (78) 28.2%
Hispanic / Latino (60) 21.7%
Students w/ disabilities (23) 8.7%

Nearest peer high schools

Phoenix High Community Day 10.0% Monroe High (continuation) 3.3% Mt. Lukens Continuation 34.2% Mcgowan (robert) High (continuation) 21.6% Jane Addams Continuation 13.7%

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
86.7%
65 of 75 students

Absenteeism is up 15.1 pp since 2016-17. A rising absenteeism trend often precedes formal departure — worth investigating which subgroups are driving it.

Kern County median
19.6% · school is worse than 98% of 47 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 = 24
16.7%
incl. 4.2% exceeded
-35.0 pts vs. Kern County median (51.7%) · CA median 54.3% · Top 10% statewide ≥ 79.3%
Math — met or exceeded
n = 23
0.0%
incl. 0.0% exceeded
-12.9 pts vs. Kern County median (12.9%) · 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 60% -2.8
White 18% -17.4
Black / African Am. 15% +12.7
Asian 5%
Two or more 2%

Program subgroups

Students w/ disabilities 82% +3.4

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 — Southern Kern 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
$59.2M
+21.9% since FY2017
Per-pupil revenue
$17,595
3,366 students enrolled
Revenue mix
State: 64.3%
Local: 25.2%
Federal: 10.5%
Instruction share
57.8%
of current spending · $7,544/pupil
Long-term debt
$55.8M
+51.5% since FY2017
Total revenue by year ($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 Southern Kern 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).

Rare Earth High (continuation) — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot

Public · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools

  • Senior-class enrollment is down 12% (24→21 from 2018 to 2026), outpacing the peer-group median of -25%.
  • At its recent rate (-3.2%/yr), enrollment projects to ~36 by 2029 — about 4 fewer students than today.

Enrollment projection

40 students (2026)
~36 projected (2029)
at -3.2%/yr

That's about 4 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
Rare Earth High (continuation) Public 40 -12%
Peer-group median -25%
Phoenix High Community Day Public 29 -79%
Monroe High (continuation) Public 21 -60%
Mt. Lukens Continuation Public 35 -53%
Mcgowan (robert) High (continuation) Public 25 +250%
Jane Addams Continuation Public 56 -76%
Evergreen Continuation Public 57 -30%
Mission Continuation Public 112 +73%
Mojave Jr./Sr. High Public 368 +27%
Desert Winds Continuation High Public 468 -20%
Rosamond High Early College Campus Public 907 +9%

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 →

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