Santa Cruz High School
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Most similar nearby schools
Harbor High School → Soquel High School → Aptos High School → Pacific Collegiate Charter → Pajaro Valley Hs → Compare all similar →Enrollment trend & projection
If this trend holds (-0.0%/yr, Total enrollment)
At per-pupil funding of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Funding impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2027) | ~1,060 | +0 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2029) | ~1,059 | -1 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2031) | ~1,059 | -1 | $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 Santa Cruz County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.
Santa Cruz High School's enrollment is tracking Santa Cruz County's baseline (+2.5% vs. +3.1%), and 94.1% stability is elite. The demographic tide is the headwind; you're holding your share.
66 of 1,116 students who enrolled at Santa Cruz High School this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (5.9% 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 5.0 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.
+16.9 pp above peer median (28.3%) · Ranked #2 of 10 similar schools
18.5%
28.3%
53.3%
45.2%
Higher than 86% of California high schools (1105 ranked, ≥50 seniors)
Santa Cruz High School's UC Reach of 45.2% is in the top quartile statewide (median 18.5%; top 25% bar 32.0%) — but it's still below the top-10% bar of 53.3%.
Against similar schools, Santa Cruz High School stands out clearly — the peer-group median is 28.3%.
For context, the elite tier (top 1%) clears 102.7% — a gap of 58 pp from where this school sits.
Overall, Santa Cruz High School's UC Reach is higher than 86% of California high schools (1105 ranked).
Santa Cruz High School — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot
Public · Santa Cruz · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools
- ▸On UC Reach, Santa Cruz High School sits near the top of its similar-school group (ranked #2 of 10): 45% vs. a peer median of 28%.
- ▸Its UC Reach has risen 25 points since 2018.
- ▸Senior-class enrollment is up 2% (243→249 from 2018 to 2026), outpacing the peer-group median of -5%.
- ▸At its recent rate (-0.0%/yr), enrollment projects to ~1059 by 2029 — about 1 fewer students than today.
Enrollment projection
That's about 1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Cruz High School | Public | 1060 | 45.2% | +2% |
| Peer-group median | 28.3% | -5% | ||
| Harbor High School | Public | 994 | 28.3% | +2% |
| Soquel High School | Public | 1055 | 27.7% | +7% |
| Aptos High School | Public | 1258 | 28.4% | -6% |
| Pacific Collegiate Charter | Public | 551 | — | -14% |
| Pajaro Valley Hs | Public | 1270 | 10.9% | -4% |
| Scotts Valley High School | Public | 592 | 44.7% | -10% |
| San Lorenzo Valley High School | Public | 537 | 22.1% | -26% |
| Saratoga High School | Public | 1143 | 72.9% | -2% |
| North Monterey County High Sch | Public | 1169 | 21.8% | +14% |
| Pioneer High School | Public | 1342 | 35.4% | -10% |
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 Berkeley | 3.98 | 17.3% | 12.4% | +4.9pp | On target |
| UCLA | 4.02 | 11.0% | 9.3% | +1.6pp | On target |
| UC San Diego | 3.93 | 21.4% | 21.5% | -0.0pp | On target |
| UC Santa Barbara | 3.95 | 25.0% | 30.5% | -5.5pp | Under |
| UC Irvine | 3.95 | 48.1% | 24.5% | +23.6pp | Over |
| UC Davis | 3.97 | 43.8% | 32.6% | +11.1pp | Over |
Where Santa Cruz High School sits vs. all California schools ⓘ
Overall, this school admits its UC applicants in line with what their GPAs predict (26.8% actual vs. 22.2% 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 | 75 | 13 | 7 | 17.3% | 4.8% | 53.8% | 3.98 | 4.22 |
| UCLA → Elite | 73 | 8 | 4 | 11.0% | 3.0% | 50.0% | 4.02 | 4.30 |
| UC San Diego → Selective | 84 | 18 | — | 21.4% | 6.7% | — | 3.93 | 4.27 |
| UC Santa Barbara → Selective | 92 | 23 | 6 | 25.0% | 8.5% | 26.1% | 3.95 | 4.26 |
| UC Irvine → Selective | 52 | 25 | 6 | 48.1% | 9.3% | 24.0% | 3.95 | 4.10 |
| UC Davis → | 80 | 35 | 6 | 43.8% | 13.0% | 17.1% | 3.97 | 4.17 |