Discovery High: The scores are below where anyone wants them. Here's what they don't tell you.
Discovery posts low test scores — and test scores are one lens among several. If this is your zoned school, the numbers below are where to start a conversation, not where to end one.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Grad rate | College readiness | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 23 | 0% | 5% | 84.2% | 0.0% | 69.7% | 8.6% |
| CA average · High School | 47 | 16% | 36% | 86.6% | 33.9% | 30.2% | 3.6% |
Discovery High scores 23 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 12th percentile of 2,160 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 “5% proficient” and call it done. Discovery deserves a closer read. The school sits in Sacramento, where four in five students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
Test scores are one lens, and at this school they're a rough one right now. The sections below show the fuller picture — including the parts that are working.
The seven-year arc
Has stayed near the 12th percentile since 2019.
This school hasn't fully recovered from the pandemic: 5% meet the standard today, versus 8% in 2019 — a gap worth asking about on a visit.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 13% | 15% | 9% | 9% | 5% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 2% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 4% |
The story this school is actually telling
Of 100 students here: 5 are proficient by 11th grade → 84 graduate → 0 pass an AP exam. The gaps between those bars are the questions to ask.
The 7 things our score weighs
Ask what changed in the last two years, and what the school is asking families for. Growth shows up in these numbers a year or two after it shows up in classrooms.
- Ask how the school follows up when a student starts missing days — chronic absence often starts outside the classroom, not inside it.
- Ask what typically leads to a suspension, and what happens before it gets there.
- 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.
How every group of students does here
At Discovery High in Sacramento, 5.1% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 31.0% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Discovery High trails its district average for low-income students by 25.8 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (2.5% Math proficient); Hispanic students (8.8% ELA proficient). Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 39 students tested.
8 of 14 student groups here are too small to report — a privacy protection, not a gap.
Showing up, and staying in class
Where the path goes
The path below follows attendance boundaries — scores shown for each next step.
Estimated path based on proximity within the same district. Contact your school district for official feeder information.
The people teaching here
Pay is set by the district, not the school.
What gets spent here
$674 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 130 students, this school is much smaller than the typical California high school (≈1450).
On the state's science test (CAST), 7% 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 Discovery High a good high school?
What are Discovery High's CAASPP test scores?
How does Discovery High rank in California?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Discovery High?
How does Discovery High compare to other schools in Sacramento?
How does Discovery High serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby High Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 50
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 50
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 | 55 | 0% | 5% | 31% | 64% | 5% | −43 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 56 | 0% | 4% | 11% | 86% | 4% | −20 |
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 | 111 | 0% | 7% | 70% | 23% |
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.
| Subgroup · ELA | Tested | MET+ | vs district | vs CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 39 | 5.1% | −26 | −33 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 34 | 8.8% | −27 | −30 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Grade gap | Cohort growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Discovery High ← | — | 23 | 0.0% | 4.5% | — | — | 8.6% |
| Washington Middle College High | 3.3 mi | 59 | 30.6% | 65.3% | — | — | 1.1% |
| Inderkum High | 2.1 mi | 53 | 18.6% | 40.8% | — | — | 3.7% |
| Natomas High | 0.3 mi | 39 | 5.2% | 25.1% | — | — | 8.3% |
| California average | — | 47 | 15.8% | 35.7% | — | — | 3.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Grade gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 26 | 20 | #1640 | 1.0% | 7.7% | 58.7% | 5.0% | — |
| 2022 | 24 | 15 | #1777 | 2.1% | 7.8% | 73.4% | 8.7% | — |
| 2023 | 24 | 14 | #1843 | 1.8% | 4.5% | 72.2% | 9.5% | — |
| 2024 | 22 | 13 | #1873 | 1.4% | 4.7% | 73.7% | 11.9% | — |
| 2025 | 23 | 12 | #1898 | 0.0% | 4.5% | 69.7% | 8.6% | — |
- — Low-income students here trail the state average for their group by 33 points in ELA — worth asking how the school is closing that gap.
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 75.0% | 88.5% | +13.5pp |
| Male | 64.1% | 73.5% | +9.4pp |
| Black/African American | 73.9% | 85.5% | +11.6pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 68.4% | 78.0% | +9.6pp |
| Two or More Races | 58.8% | 84.6% | +25.8pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 60.0% | 64.5% | +4.5pp |
| English Learners | 58.8% | 75.9% | +17.1pp |
| Homeless | 60.0% | 90.9% | +30.9pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 66.1% | 83.1% | +17.0pp |
| All Students | 68.2% | 80.0% | +11.8pp |
| Measure | This school |
|---|---|
| AP offered | not offered |
| AP course count | not reported |
| AP enrollment | not reported |
| IB participation | not offered |
| Dual enrollment | not offered |
| Algebra I in grade 8 | not reported |
| Calculus sections | 0 |
| Physics sections | 2 |
| Chemistry sections | 0 |
| Total enrollment (CRDC) | 119 |
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 | 0 | 0.0% |
| California State University | 0 | 0.0% |
| California community college | 18 | 20.0% |
| In-state private | 2 | 2.2% |
| Out-of-state, 4-year | 1 | 1.1% |
| Out-of-state, 2-year | 2 | 2.2% |
| Not enrolled | 67 | 74.4% |
90 completers, class of 2023 · state-reported college-going rate 26% · % 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