Soquel High School
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Most similar nearby schools
Harbor High School → Santa Cruz High School → Aptos High School → Pajaro Valley Hs → Scotts Valley High School → Compare all similar →Enrollment trend & projection
If this trend holds (-1.1%/yr, Total enrollment)
At per-pupil funding of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Funding impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2027) | ~1,043 | -12 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2029) | ~1,020 | -35 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2031) | ~997 | -58 | $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.
Soquel High School outperformed Santa Cruz County on enrollment (school +6.9% vs. county +3.1%) AND maintains 93.9% stability. Replicable model — worth documenting what's working.
67 of 1,103 students who enrolled at Soquel 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 6.3 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.
On the peer median (28.4%) · Ranked #7 of 10 similar schools
18.5%
28.4%
53.3%
27.7%
Higher than 69% of California high schools (1105 ranked, ≥50 seniors)
Soquel High School's UC Reach of 27.7% is above the California median (18.5%). The top 10% of CA schools achieve 53.3% or higher.
For context, the elite tier (top 1%) clears 102.7% — a gap of 75 pp from where this school sits.
Overall, Soquel High School's UC Reach is higher than 69% of California high schools (1105 ranked).
Soquel High School — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot
Public · Soquel · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools
- ▸On UC Reach, Soquel High School sits in the middle of its similar-school group (ranked #7 of 10): 28% vs. a peer median of 28%.
- ▸Its UC Reach has risen 14 points since 2018.
- ▸Senior-class enrollment is up 7% (218→233 from 2018 to 2026), outpacing the peer-group median of -5%.
- ▸At its recent rate (-1.1%/yr), enrollment projects to ~1020 by 2029 — about 35 fewer students than today.
Enrollment projection
That's about 35 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soquel High School | Public | 1055 | 27.7% | +7% |
| Peer-group median | 28.4% | -5% | ||
| Harbor High School | Public | 994 | 28.3% | +2% |
| Santa Cruz High School | Public | 1060 | 45.2% | +2% |
| Aptos High School | Public | 1258 | 28.4% | -6% |
| Pajaro Valley Hs | Public | 1270 | 10.9% | -4% |
| Scotts Valley High School | Public | 592 | 44.7% | -10% |
| Pacific Collegiate Charter | Public | 551 | — | -14% |
| Saratoga High School | Public | 1143 | 72.9% | -2% |
| North Monterey County High Sch | Public | 1169 | 21.8% | +14% |
| San Lorenzo Valley High School | Public | 537 | 22.1% | -26% |
| 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 | 3.96 | 13.0% | 12.1% | +0.8pp | On target |
| UCLA | 3.93 | 9.3% | 9.0% | +0.2pp | On target |
| UC San Diego | 3.84 | 15.3% | 23.8% | -8.5pp | Under |
| UC Santa Barbara | 3.88 | 21.2% | 27.9% | -6.7pp | Under |
| UC Irvine | 3.92 | 45.9% | 23.5% | +22.5pp | Over |
| UC Davis | 3.90 | 38.2% | 32.3% | +5.9pp | Over |
Where Soquel High School sits vs. all California schools ⓘ
Overall, this school admits its UC applicants in line with what their GPAs predict (22.5% actual vs. 21.6% 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 | 54 | 7 | 3 | 13.0% | 2.7% | 42.9% | 3.96 | 4.27 |
| UCLA → Elite | 54 | 5 | 3 | 9.3% | 1.9% | 60.0% | 3.93 | 4.13 |
| UC San Diego → Selective | 59 | 9 | — | 15.3% | 3.4% | — | 3.84 | 4.27 |
| UC Santa Barbara → Selective | 66 | 14 | 5 | 21.2% | 5.3% | 35.7% | 3.88 | 4.29 |
| UC Irvine → Selective | 37 | 17 | — | 45.9% | 6.4% | — | 3.92 | 4.11 |
| UC Davis → | 55 | 21 | 4 | 38.2% | 8.0% | 19.0% | 3.90 | 4.14 |