Highlands High: No single number tells this school's story. Here's the honest picture.
Highlands posts 28% meeting the standard and 12.7% 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 | 34 | 13% | 28% | 90.4% | 2.9% | 41.3% | 8.7% |
| CA average · High School | 44 | 16% | 36% | 87.6% | 35.4% | 30.2% | 3.6% |
Highlands High scores 34 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 29th 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 “28% proficient” and call it done. Highlands deserves a closer read. The school sits in North Highlands, where four in five students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
The seven-year arc
Has stayed near the 29th percentile since 2019.
Proficiency here is back to its pre-pandemic level — 28% meet the standard, about where the school stood in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 35% | 27% | 27% | 28% | 36% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 20% | 13% | 14% | 20% | 20% |
The story this school is actually telling
Of 100 students here: 28 are proficient by 11th grade → 90 graduate → 3 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 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 Highlands High in North Highlands, 36.3% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 34.9% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Highlands High outperforms its district average for low-income students by 1.4 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (20.2% Math proficient); Hispanic students (33.0% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 28.9 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 168 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
Pay is set by the district, not the school.
What gets spent here
$1,269 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 778 students, this school is much smaller than the typical California high school (≈1450).
On the state's science test (CAST), 17% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Highlands High a good high school?
What are Highlands High's CAASPP test scores?
How does Highlands High rank in California?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Highlands High?
How does Highlands High compare to other schools in North Highlands?
How does Highlands High serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby High Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 46
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 52
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 | 181 | 18% | 19% | 25% | 38% | 36% | −11 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 182 | 8% | 13% | 16% | 63% | 20% | −3 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 192 | 4% | 13% | 62% | 21% |
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 | 168 | 36.3% | +1 | −2 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 91 | 33.0% | −3 | −6 |
| English Learners | 53 | 7.5% | −6 | −3 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Highlands High ← | — | 34 | 12.7% | 28.4% | — | 8.7% |
| Antelope High | 1.6 mi | 50 | 20.6% | 48.2% | — | 4.2% |
| Center High | 2.8 mi | 49 | 17.9% | 44.3% | — | 7.3% |
| Foothill High | 0.6 mi | 38 | 8.5% | 25.6% | — | 6.5% |
| California average | — | 44 | 15.8% | 35.7% | — | 3.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 36 | 31 | #1410 | 10.2% | 27.5% | 16.7% | 14.6% | — |
| 2022 | 29 | 23 | #1616 | 3.7% | 20.0% | 38.6% | 12.9% | — |
| 2023 | 31 | 25 | #1604 | 6.5% | 20.6% | 31.6% | 14.1% | — |
| 2024 | 32 | 26 | #1594 | 7.0% | 23.9% | 31.6% | 13.2% | — |
| 2025 | 34 | 29 | #1535 | 12.7% | 28.4% | 41.3% | 8.7% | — |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 15.9% | 43.6% | +27.7pp |
| Male | 15.6% | 40.7% | +25.1pp |
| Asian | 0.0% | 25.5% | +25.5pp |
| Black/African American | 23.2% | 47.1% | +23.9pp |
| White | 0.0% | 17.6% | +17.6pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 12.4% | 39.9% | +27.5pp |
| Pacific Islander | 15.4% | 83.3% | +67.9pp |
| Two or More Races | 34.7% | 55.0% | +20.3pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 23.1% | 43.4% | +20.3pp |
| English Learners | 10.3% | 36.3% | +26.0pp |
| Homeless | 34.9% | 53.3% | +18.4pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 16.8% | 43.1% | +26.3pp |
| All Students | 15.7% | 42.1% | +26.4pp |
| Filipino | — | 47.4% | — |
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