Taft Charter High

· Los Angeles County · Los Angeles Unified
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Most similar nearby schools

Calabasas High School → Grover Cleveland Charter High → John F. Kennedy High → El Camino Real Charter High → Palisades Charter High School → Compare all similar →

No UC admissions data on file for Taft Charter High.

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)
2,364 (2018)2,157 (2026)
-8.8%
Grade 12 (graduating class)
575 (2018)488 (2026)
-15.1%

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) ~2,132 -25 $0
3 yr (2029) ~2,084 -73 $0
5 yr (2031) ~2,037 -120 $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 Los Angeles County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.

Action needed
Demand declining faster than county; retention only average.

Enrollment is shrinking 1.8× the county rate (school -15.1% vs. county -8.2%) with stability (87.8%) near the county median. Two problems compounding — the recruitment side is the higher-leverage starting point.

-15.1%  school enrollment (2018–2026)
-8.2%  Los Angeles County baseline
-6.9pp  gap vs. county
87.8%  retention (county median 87.3%)
Enrollment — indexed to 100 at 2018
Stability rate by year (raw %)
Stability rate
87.8%
2,064 of 2,351 students

287 of 2,351 students who enrolled at Taft Charter High this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (12.2% non-stability). Mid-year transfers, dropouts, and other exits are all counted.

Los Angeles County median
87.3% · school is in the 53rd percentile of 387 HS
Statewide median
87.2% · in the 54th percentile of 1,688 HS

Stability by student group

Socio. disadvantaged (1,369) 84.6%
White (924) 90.0%
Hispanic / Latino (920) 85.4%
Students w/ disabilities (378) 81.7%
Asian (180) 94.4%
Black / African Am. (152) 77.6%

Nearest peer high schools

Calabasas High School 94.5% Grover Cleveland Charter High 86.6% John F. Kennedy High 88.9% El Camino Real Charter High 89.7% Palisades Charter High School 80.5%

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
24.5%
557 of 2,273 students

Absenteeism is up 15.0 pp since 2016-17. A rising absenteeism trend often precedes formal departure — worth investigating which subgroups are driving it.

Los Angeles County median
25.2% · school is better than 52% of 381 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 = 462
65.2%
incl. 37.0% exceeded
+7.2 pts above Los Angeles County median (58.0%) · CA median 54.3% · Top 10% statewide ≥ 79.3%
Math — met or exceeded
n = 456
40.4%
incl. 19.7% exceeded
+15.4 pts above Los Angeles County median (25.0%) · 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 40% +1.5
White 39% -1.9
Asian 7%
Black / African Am. 6%
Two or more 4%
Filipino 2%
Not reported 1%

Program subgroups

Students w/ disabilities 60% +7.2
Socioeconomically disadv. 15%
English learners 4%
Homeless 1%

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 — Los Angeles 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
$11112.5M
+8.9% since FY2017
Per-pupil revenue
$24,124
460,633 students enrolled
Revenue mix
State: 51.7%
Local: 29.8%
Federal: 18.5%
Instruction share
53.5%
of current spending · $10,061/pupil
Long-term debt
$11908.4M
+4.3% since FY2017
Total revenue by year ($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 Los Angeles 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).

Taft Charter High — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot

Public · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools

  • Senior-class enrollment is down 15% (575→488 from 2018 to 2026), trailing the peer-group median of -8%.
  • At its recent rate (-1.1%/yr), enrollment projects to ~2084 by 2029 — about 73 fewer students than today.

Enrollment projection

2157 students (2026)
~2084 projected (2029)
at -1.1%/yr

That's about 73 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
Taft Charter High Public 2157 -15%
Peer-group median 25.6% -8%
Calabasas High School Public 1786 50.5% -9%
Grover Cleveland Charter High Public 2633 +0%
John F. Kennedy High Public 2167 22.5% +12%
El Camino Real Charter High Public 2896 -18%
Palisades Charter High School Public 2393 43.6% -7%
Van Nuys High School Public 1773 28.7% -8%
Chatsworth Charter High Public 1652 28.9% -15%
James Monroe High School Public 1732 14.4% +1%
John H Francis Polytechnic Hs Public 1965 18.0% -28%
Simi Valley High School Public 1947 13.4% -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 →

Is your school winning the families it should?

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