Acalanes Center for Independent Study: No single number tells this school's story. Here's the honest picture.
Acalanes Center for Independent Study posts 30% meeting the standard and 4.3% exceeding it, against 43% and 19.8% statewide. The gaps and the bright spots below are the real read.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Grad rate | College readiness | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 42 | 4% | 30% | 90.9% | 36.4% | 56.8% | 2.1% |
| CA average · High School | 54 | 20% | 43% | 92.5% | 43.0% | 23.1% | 3.3% |
Acalanes Center for Independent Study scores 42 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 37th percentile of 1,647 California high schools (CDE CAASPP 2025).
Measures test performance, attendance, and climate — not arts, community, or your kid. How we score →
🌱 Building Momentum — This label means the data doesn't clearly sort the school one way or the other — ask what the school is proud of, and what it's working on.
Most rating sites would stop at “30% proficient” and call it done. Acalanes Center for Independent Study deserves a closer read. It sits at the 37th percentile of 1,647 California high schools — but the ranking is the least interesting thing on this page.
The seven-year arc
Slipped from the 64th to the 37th percentile since 2022.
| Grade | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 73% | 77% | 63% | 52% |
| Grade | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 27% | 29% | 29% | 9% |
The story this school is actually telling
Of 100 students here: 30 are proficient by 11th grade → 91 graduate → 36 pass an AP exam. The gaps between those bars are the questions to ask.
The 6 things our score weighs
Ask what the school is working on next. Strong numbers tell you where a school is, not where it's going.
- Ask how the school follows up when a student starts missing days — chronic absence often starts outside the classroom, not inside it.
- Ask what share of students complete the full college-prep course sequence, and who gets steered into it.
- Ask whether the tour can step into a working classroom — watch how the teacher handles a student who's stuck.
- Ask to tour while school's in session, and notice how hallways and transitions feel — culture shows up between classes, not just in them.
- Ask how the school communicates with families when a child starts to struggle.
- Ask what a typical day looks like for a new student in the first few weeks.
How every group of students does here
8 of 11 student groups here are too small to report — a privacy protection, not a gap.
In the 2020-21 federal collection — the newest there is — Students with disabilities students were 36% of Acalanes Center for Independent Study's enrollment but 14% of its AP seats; ask the school what's changed since.
● share of AP enrollment vs share of total enrollment, this school only · not part of the Scope Score
Data source: U.S. Dept. of Education Office for Civil Rights, Civil Rights Data Collection, 2020-21 (biennial; newest published)
Showing up, and staying in class
The people teaching here
Pay is set by the district, not the school.
Acalanes Center for Independent Study's teachers are authorized to teach 4 of the 40 AP subjects the College Board offers — including Calculus AB, Environmental Science, and Precalculus.
Data source: College Board AP Course Audit, 2025 - 2026 audit year (authorization, not enrollment) · IB World Schools directory, name-matched · structural depth: 2020-21 federal snapshot, table 09
What gets spent here
$608 per student arrives as federal Title funding — a measure of concentrated need, not school quality.
The district's current expense of education per student, from CDE's annual SACS filing — the freshest district spending figure the state publishes.
District-level, from the district's own SACS general-ledger filing — school-by-school breakdowns aren't published by the state.
Source: NCES F-33 · Full district breakdown →
The neighborhood it serves
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates (2024) · ZIP-level
At 61 students, this school is much smaller than the typical California high school (≈1450).
On the state's science test (CAST), 53% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 and once in high school, and it never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Acalanes Center for Independent Study a good high school?
What are Acalanes Center for Independent Study's CAASPP test scores?
How does Acalanes Center for Independent Study rank in California?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Acalanes Center for Independent Study?
How does Acalanes Center for Independent Study compare to other schools in Walnut Creek?
What AP courses are offered at Acalanes Center for Independent Study?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 72
Nearby Middle Schools
2 within ~3 mi · avg 64
Private alternatives nearby
Private schools within ~10 miles. These schools do not participate in state testing and cannot be scored or ranked.
A low score doesn't tell the whole story. Read: Your School Scored Low — Here's What That Actually Means
Every number on this page
Score factors, grade-level breakdowns, subgroup proficiency, and nearest schools.
| ELA | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 23 | 9% | 43% | 39% | 9% | 52% | +4 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 23 | 0% | 9% | 30% | 61% | 9% | −15 |
We show the grade rows CDE publishes for this school. A missing grade or dash can mean the school does not serve that grade, no valid result was published, or the tested group was too small to report. It does not mean zero.
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Schoolwide | 15 | 0% | 53% | 47% | 0% |
CAST is tested in grades 5 and 8, then once in grade 10, 11, or 12. This row is the school's all-student aggregate. Not part of the Scope Score.
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Grade gap | Cohort growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acalanes Center for Independent Study ← | — | 42 | 4.3% | 30.4% | — | — | 2.1% |
| Acalanes High | 2.3 mi | 82 | 49.9% | 72.8% | — | — | 2.3% |
| Las Lomas High | 1.3 mi | 74 | 36.6% | 63.8% | — | — | 2.5% |
| California average | — | 54 | 19.8% | 43.2% | — | — | 3.3% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Grade gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 52 | 64 | #759 | 18.2% | 50.0% | 37.2% | 2.4% | — |
| 2023 | 56 | 71 | #622 | 26.4% | 52.8% | 27.6% | 4.4% | — |
| 2024 | 50 | 56 | #936 | 12.8% | 45.8% | 39.3% | 2.3% | — |
| 2025 | 42 | 37 | #1361 | 4.3% | 30.4% | 56.8% | 2.1% | — |
- — No subgroup comparison could be shown for this school this year — either its group sizes fall under CDE's 15-student reporting floor, or district/state comparison data wasn't available for its groups.
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 27.0% | 74.5% | +47.5pp |
| Male | 50.0% | 71.0% | +21.0pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 53.3% | 71.1% | +17.8pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 45.5% | 78.6% | +33.1pp |
| All Students | 35.6% | 73.3% | +37.7pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | — | 75.0% | — |
| Subject | Taught by |
|---|---|
| Calculus AB | this school |
| Environmental Science | this school |
| Precalculus | this school |
| United States History | this school |
Authorization ≠ a section running this year — the Ledger records what the school may teach, not seat counts.
| Measure | This school |
|---|---|
| AP offered | offered |
| AP course count | 3 |
| AP enrollment | 7 |
| IB participation | not offered |
| Dual enrollment | not offered |
| Algebra I in grade 8 | not reported |
| Calculus sections | 0 |
| Physics sections | 0 |
| Chemistry sections | 0 |
| Total enrollment (CRDC) | 42 |
Shown, never scored — no entry to any composite. NULL/reserve codes render "not reported," never a fabricated zero. The equity block above this table (§4) is the per-subgroup view of this same collection.
| Destination | Completers | % (derived) |
|---|---|---|
| University of California | 1 | 4.5% |
| California State University | 1 | 4.5% |
| California community college | 14 | 63.6% |
| In-state private | 0 | 0.0% |
| Out-of-state, 4-year | 2 | 9.1% |
| Out-of-state, 2-year | 0 | 0.0% |
| Not enrolled | 4 | 18.2% |
22 completers, class of 2023 · state-reported college-going rate 82% · % column is computed by SchoolScope (count ÷ completers), not a CDE-native rate · a missing cell is CDE suppression, never a fabricated zero · source: CDE 12-mo CGR, 2023 cohort (the newest published), National Student Clearinghouse match — a different, older vintage than the fall 2025 UC admissions rows in tables 06-07 above.
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SchoolScope scores and verdicts are our interpretation of public California Department of Education data — independent analysis, not an official rating. How we analyze · Request a correction