Urban Discovery Academy Charter

· San Diego County · San Diego Unified
Public San Diego County 🏛 San Diego Unified → CDS 3768338…
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Compare with peers

Most similar nearby schools

E3 Civic High → America's Finest Charter → King-Chavez Community High → Diego Hills Central Public Charter → Kearny College Connections → Compare all similar →

No UC admissions data on file for Urban Discovery Academy Charter.

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)
610 (2018)310 (2026)
-49.2%
Grade 12 (graduating class)
21 (2020)14 (2026)
-33.3%

If this trend holds (-8.1%/yr, Total enrollment)

At per-pupil funding of $ / student:

Horizon Projected Total enrollment Change Funding impact / yr
1 yr (2027) ~285 -25 $0
3 yr (2029) ~241 -69 $0
5 yr (2031) ~203 -107 $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.

Critical
Compounding decline on both vectors.

Enrollment -33.3% vs. county -8.7% AND stability (74.1%) below the county median. Recruitment and retention both under pressure — likely a foundational rather than tactical problem. Chronic absenteeism is also at 42.2% (up +11.6 pts from 2017-18) — engagement and demand are both signaling decline.

-33.3%  school enrollment (2020–2026)
-8.7%  San Diego County baseline
-24.6pp  gap vs. county
74.1%  retention (county median 88.5%)
Enrollment — indexed to 100 at 2020
Stability rate by year (raw %)
Stability rate
74.1%
43 of 58 students

15 of 58 students who enrolled at Urban Discovery Academy Charter this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (25.9% non-stability). Mid-year transfers, dropouts, and other exits are all counted.

San Diego County median
88.5% · school is in the 24th percentile of 121 HS
Statewide median
87.2% · in the 25th percentile of 1,688 HS

Stability by student group

Socio. disadvantaged (261) 80.8%
Hispanic / Latino (209) 80.4%
Students w/ disabilities (89) 83.1%
White (61) 80.3%
English learners (54) 81.5%
Black / African Am. (53) 83.0%

Nearest peer high schools

E3 Civic High 88.8% America's Finest Charter 76.3% King-Chavez Community High 85.5% Kearny College Connections 69.3%

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
43.6%
24 of 55 students

Absenteeism is up 13.0 pp since 2017-18. A rising absenteeism trend often precedes formal departure — worth investigating which subgroups are driving it.

San Diego County median
18.9% · school is worse than 86% of 117 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 = 11
63.6%
incl. 9.1% exceeded
+3.0 pts above San Diego County median (60.6%) · CA median 54.3% · Top 10% statewide ≥ 79.3%
Math — met or exceeded
n = 17
0.0%
incl. 0.0% exceeded
-24.4 pts vs. San Diego County median (24.4%) · 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 82% +5.3
White 6% -4.0
Filipino 6% +2.7
Two or more 4% -1.0
Black / African Am. 2% -3.0

Program subgroups

Students w/ disabilities 24% -17.7

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 — San Diego 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
$2239.7M
+17.1% since FY2017
Per-pupil revenue
$22,861
97,968 students enrolled
Revenue mix
State: 24.2%
Local: 65.2%
Federal: 10.6%
Instruction share
58.6%
of current spending · $9,592/pupil
Long-term debt
$5186.5M
+29.3% since FY2017
Total revenue by year ($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 San Diego 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).

Urban Discovery Academy Charter — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot

Public · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools

  • Senior-class enrollment is down 33% (21→14 from 2020 to 2026), trailing the peer-group median of -7%.
  • At its recent rate (-8.1%/yr), enrollment projects to ~241 by 2029 — about 69 fewer students than today.

Enrollment projection

310 students (2026)
~241 projected (2029)
at -8.1%/yr

That's about 69 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
Urban Discovery Academy Charter Public 310 -33%
Peer-group median 17.4% -7%
E3 Civic High Public 344 10.5% -7%
America's Finest Charter Public 334 -6%
King-Chavez Community High Public 255 4.8% -66%
Diego Hills Central Public Charter Public 301 -54%
Kearny College Connections Public 319 19.1% -8%
High Tech High International Public 348 19.3% -13%
High Tech High Media Arts Public 346 36.7% -6%
Kearny Digital Media & Design Public 335 15.7% +2%
Kearny Eng Innov & Design Public 283 7.7% +10%
High Tech High School Public 394 41.0% -18%

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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