Harbor High: This school runs ahead of the state average. The bar itself is the harder conversation.
Harbor posts 43% meeting the standard against 36% statewide — ahead of most, with real headroom above the bar.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Grad rate | College readiness | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 45 | 20% | 43% | 94.1% | 2.6% | 23.9% | 2.7% |
| CA average · High School | 44 | 16% | 36% | 87.6% | 35.4% | 30.2% | 3.6% |
Harbor High scores 45 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 48th 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 “43% proficient” and call it done. Harbor deserves a closer read. The school sits in Santa Cruz, where one in three students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
Harbor's low-income kids hit 54.2% proficiency in ELA — a number the same group reaches at 38.2% statewide. If you're trying to read past zip-code-driven test scores, that's the signal worth weighing.
The seven-year arc
Slipped from the 58th to the 48th percentile since 2019.
This school hasn't fully recovered from the pandemic: 43% meet the standard today, versus 56% in 2019 — a gap worth asking about on a visit.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 69% | 62% | 64% | 57% | 60% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 43% | 28% | 29% | 25% | 26% |
The story this school is actually telling
Of 100 students here: 43 are proficient by 11th grade → 94 graduate → 3 pass an AP exam. The gaps between those bars are the questions to ask.
Harbor's most underrated number
54.2% of low-income students met the ELA standard — versus 38.2% for the same group statewide. That's the strongest kind of signal a school can post: it holds across income lines.
The 7 things our score weighs
Ask how the school challenges kids who clear the standard early. The gap between meeting and exceeding is where pacing shows.
- Ask whether extra support — tutoring, counseling, small groups — reaches kids across income lines, not just the students already ahead.
- 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 Harbor High in Santa Cruz, 54.2% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 41.0% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Harbor High outperforms its district average for low-income students by 13.1 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (17.5% Math proficient); Hispanic students (50.7% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 59.7 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 96 students tested.
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
What gets spent here
$853 per student arrives as federal Title funding — a measure of concentrated need, not school quality.
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
On the state's science test (CAST), 34% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Harbor High a good high school?
What are Harbor High's CAASPP test scores?
How does Harbor High rank in California?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Harbor High?
How does Harbor High compare to other schools in Santa Cruz?
How does Harbor High serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby High Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 54
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 59
Nearby Middle Schools
2 within ~3 mi · avg 47
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 | 231 | 29% | 30% | 19% | 21% | 60% | +13 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 230 | 10% | 15% | 23% | 51% | 26% | +2 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 444 | 8% | 26% | 57% | 9% |
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 | 96 | 54.2% | +13 | +16 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 138 | 50.7% | +8 | +12 |
| White | 74 | 71.6% | −4 | +10 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harbor High ← | — | 45 | 19.9% | 42.7% | — | 2.7% |
| Santa Cruz High | 2.4 mi | 65 | 37.5% | 59.8% | — | 1.5% |
| Soquel High | 2 mi | 59 | 21.6% | 53.4% | — | 1.3% |
| Ark Independent Studies | 1.2 mi | 38 | 16.7% | 33.3% | — | 2.3% |
| California average | — | 44 | 15.8% | 35.7% | — | 3.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 50 | 58 | #849 | 26.1% | 56.1% | 14.9% | 4.2% | — |
| 2022 | 44 | 52 | #1016 | 19.4% | 44.7% | 26.9% | 3.6% | — |
| 2023 | 44 | 51 | #1064 | 19.8% | 46.6% | 28.3% | 4.8% | — |
| 2024 | 44 | 49 | #1100 | 20.6% | 40.6% | 24.1% | 4.6% | — |
| 2025 | 45 | 48 | #1117 | 19.9% | 42.7% | 23.9% | 2.7% | — |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 13.3% | 25.7% | +12.4pp |
| Male | 14.6% | 21.3% | +6.7pp |
| Asian | 15.4% | 10.5% | -4.9pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 13.5% | 25.6% | +12.1pp |
| Two or More Races | 14.3% | 22.6% | +8.3pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 26.0% | 30.3% | +4.3pp |
| English Learners | 19.5% | 25.2% | +5.7pp |
| Homeless | 8.3% | 41.7% | +33.4pp |
| Military-Connected | 8.0% | — | — |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 16.3% | 30.4% | +14.1pp |
| All Students | 14.0% | 23.4% | +9.4pp |
| Filipino | — | 33.3% | — |
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