Granite Hills High: No single number tells this school's story. Here's the honest picture.
Granite Hills posts 32% meeting the standard and 12.4% exceeding it, against 36% and 15.8% statewide. The gaps and the bright spots below are the real read.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Grad rate | College readiness | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 43 | 12% | 32% | 86.0% | 47.4% | 24.9% | 2.4% |
| CA average · High School | 44 | 16% | 36% | 87.6% | 35.4% | 30.2% | 3.6% |
Granite Hills High scores 43 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 45th 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 “32% proficient” and call it done. Granite Hills deserves a closer read. The school sits in El Cajon, where more than half of students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
The seven-year arc
Slipped from the 61st to the 45th percentile since 2019.
This school hasn't fully recovered from the pandemic: 32% meet the standard today, versus 48% in 2019 — a gap worth asking about on a visit.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 55% | 58% | 38% | 47% | 46% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 42% | 25% | 24% | 23% | 18% |
The story this school is actually telling
Of 100 students here: 32 are proficient by 11th grade → 86 graduate → 47 pass an AP exam. The gaps between those bars are the questions to ask.
The 7 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 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
At Granite Hills High in El Cajon, 39.9% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 43.3% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Granite Hills High trails its district average for low-income students by 3.4 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (13.8% Math proficient); White students (49.2% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 40.2 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 316 students tested.
6 of 16 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 is estimated from nearby schools in the same district — scores shown for each next step.
Estimated K-12 path based on district and proximity. Actual attendance zones may differ. 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
These measure different things: this figure is spending attributed to this campus, while district-wide figures also include central administration, districtwide programs, and the state's pension contributions made on the district's behalf — costs that never get assigned to a single school. The district number runs higher at nearly every school, not just this one.
$667 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 2,331 students, this school is well above the typical California high school (≈1450).
On the state's science test (CAST), 19% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite Hills High a good high school?
What are Granite Hills High's CAASPP test scores?
How does Granite Hills High rank in California?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Granite Hills High?
How does Granite Hills High compare to other schools in El Cajon?
How does Granite Hills High serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby High Schools
2 within ~3 mi · avg 42
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 peer comparisons.
| ELA | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 537 | 17% | 29% | 26% | 28% | 46% | −1 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 527 | 8% | 10% | 22% | 60% | 18% | −6 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 548 | 4% | 15% | 61% | 20% |
CAST is tested in grades 5, 8, and once in high school — not annually. Not part of the Scope Score.
| Subgroup · ELA | Tested | MET+ | vs district | vs CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 316 | 39.9% | −3 | +2 |
| White | 240 | 49.2% | −10 | −13 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 232 | 42.2% | −2 | +3 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Granite Hills High ← | — | 43 | 12.4% | 31.9% | — | 2.4% |
| Valhalla High | 2.6 mi | 52 | 26.8% | 50.3% | — | 2.8% |
| El Cajon Valley High | 1.8 mi | 31 | 5.8% | 19.5% | — | 7.4% |
| California average | — | 44 | 15.8% | 35.7% | — | 3.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 51 | 61 | #801 | 19.6% | 48.1% | 17.9% | 2.2% | — |
| 2022 | 46 | 57 | #892 | 14.9% | 42.0% | 33.7% | 2.0% | — |
| 2023 | 41 | 44 | #1209 | 9.4% | 30.6% | 30.2% | 4.8% | — |
| 2024 | 43 | 48 | #1107 | 11.8% | 34.7% | 29.2% | 3.1% | — |
| 2025 | 43 | 45 | #1186 | 12.4% | 31.9% | 24.9% | 2.4% | — |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 19.8% | 27.2% | +7.4pp |
| Male | 15.9% | 22.3% | +6.4pp |
| Asian | 5.6% | 19.4% | +13.8pp |
| Black/African American | 26.0% | 32.6% | +6.6pp |
| White | 10.0% | 20.8% | +10.8pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 15.7% | 25.9% | +10.2pp |
| American Indian/Alaska Native | 29.0% | 32.4% | +3.4pp |
| Pacific Islander | 11.8% | — | — |
| Two or More Races | 15.2% | 28.4% | +13.2pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 29.0% | 37.4% | +8.4pp |
| English Learners | 19.9% | 31.2% | +11.3pp |
| Homeless | 25.8% | 67.7% | +41.9pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 20.7% | 27.4% | +6.7pp |
| All Students | 17.6% | 24.7% | +7.1pp |
| Filipino | — | 20.0% | — |
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