River Valley Charter School
Compare with peers
Most similar nearby schools
Idea Center High School → City Heights Preparatory Charter → Greater San Diego Academy → Mountain Valley Academy → Jcs Manzanita → Compare all similar →Enrollment trend & projection
If this trend holds (+1.5%/yr, Total enrollment)
At per-pupil funding of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Funding impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2027) | ~173 | +3 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2029) | ~178 | +8 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2031) | ~183 | +13 | $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.
River Valley Charter School is shrinking (-9.8%) but San Diego County is shrinking faster (-12.5%), so River Valley Charter School is winning roughly 2.7 pp of relative market share. Combined with 90.7% stability (county median 88.5%), this reflects a school that families actively chose during a market contraction. Replicable model — worth documenting what's working.
16 of 172 students who enrolled at River Valley Charter School this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (9.3% 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 down 3.2 pp since 2016-17. Engagement improving — a positive trajectory worth understanding and reinforcing.
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.
18.5%
53.3%
11.1%
Higher than 24% of California high schools (1105 ranked, ≥50 seniors)
River Valley Charter School's UC Reach of 11.1% is below the California median (18.5%). The top 10% of CA schools achieve 53.3% or higher.
Overall, River Valley Charter School's UC Reach is higher than 24% of California high schools (1105 ranked).
River Valley Charter School — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot
Public · Lakeside · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools
- ▸River Valley Charter School's most recent UC Reach is 11% (share of seniors admitted to a top-6 UC).
- ▸Senior-class enrollment is down 10% (41→37 from 2024 to 2026), outpacing the peer-group median of -24%.
- ▸In business terms, this is market-share growth during a market contraction. San Diego County's senior population shrank 12% over the same window — River Valley Charter School only shrank 10%. So River Valley Charter School picked up about 3 percentage points of relative share — families chose it over the alternatives even as the overall pool got smaller. That's overperforming the market in a shrinking market.
- ▸Enrollment has been growing (+1.5%/yr); projects to ~178 by 2029.
Enrollment projection
Your school vs. its 10 most similar nearby schools
| School | Type | Size | UC Reach | Enroll. trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| River Valley Charter School | Public | 170 | 11.1% | -10% |
| Peer-group median | — | -24% | ||
| Idea Center High School | Public | 129 | — | -25% |
| City Heights Preparatory Charter | Public | 157 | — | +175% |
| Greater San Diego Academy | Public | 196 | — | -23% |
| Mountain Valley Academy | Public | 174 | — | -48% |
| Jcs Manzanita | Public | 245 | — | -78% |
| Altus Schools East County | Public | 297 | — | -16% |
| Learning Choice Academy | Public | 179 | — | -84% |
| Abraxas Continuation High | Public | 221 | — | +95% |
| Merit Academy | Public | 72 | — | +0% |
| Diego Valley East Public Charter | Public | 408 | — | -70% |
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 Davis | 4.35 | 66.7% | 37.7% | +28.9pp | 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 Davis → | 6 | 4 | 3 | 66.7% | 11.1% | 75.0% | 4.35 | — |