Kern Valley High: The scores are below where anyone wants them. Here's what they don't tell you.
Kern Valley 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 | 31 | 4% | 21% | 87.4% | 0.0% | 32.5% | 8.3% |
| CA average · High School | 47 | 16% | 36% | 86.6% | 33.9% | 30.2% | 3.6% |
Kern Valley High scores 31 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 23rd 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 “21% proficient” and call it done. Kern Valley deserves a closer read. The school sits in Lake Isabella, where three in four 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 23rd percentile since 2019.
This school hasn't fully recovered from the pandemic: 21% meet the standard today, versus 31% in 2019 — a gap worth asking about on a visit.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 42% | 33% | 27% | 52% | 30% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 20% | 14% | 9% | 7% | 12% |
The story this school is actually telling
Of 100 students here: 21 are proficient by 11th grade → 87 graduate → 0 pass an AP exam. The gaps between those bars are the questions to ask.
The 6 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 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.
- Ask what a typical day looks like for a new student in the first few weeks.
How every group of students does here
At Kern Valley High in Lake Isabella, 27.4% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 47.2% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Kern Valley High trails its district average for low-income students by 19.8 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (8.4% Math proficient); White students (21.7% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 23.4 percentage points for disabilities students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 84 students tested.
7 of 14 student groups here are too small to report — a privacy protection, not a gap.
In the 2020-21 federal collection — the newest there is — Hispanic students were 20% of Kern Valley's enrollment but 0% 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
Where graduates go
Where they went after graduation
Of Kern Valley's class of 2023, 24% enrolled in college somewhere within a year — a CSU, a community college, a UC, or out of state.
Class of 2023: 88 completers, 24% enrolled somewhere within a year
Percentages are computed by SchoolScope (count ÷ completers) from CDE-reported counts, not a CDE-native rate.
Data source: California Department of Education, 2023 cohort — the newest published; National Student Clearinghouse match.
UC is one road of many — the full destination mix for the class of 2023 is below. And who applied isn't who the school taught: the ratio between the two reflects the self-selected pool of students who chose to apply, not what happened in the classroom. By the state's 2023 count, 24% of this class's predecessors enrolled in college somewhere within a year. More of the class of 2023 enrolled at community colleges (10) than at UC (0).
Data source: University of California Office of the President (UC Information Center), fall 2022 admissions cycle · college-going rate: California Department of Education, 2023 cohort.
The people teaching here
Pay is set by the district, not the school.
What gets spent here
$1,527 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 516 students, this school is much smaller than the typical California high school (≈1450).
On the state's science test (CAST), 23% 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 Kern Valley High a good high school?
What are Kern Valley High's CAASPP test scores?
How does Kern Valley High rank in California?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Kern Valley High?
How does Kern Valley High compare to other schools in Lake Isabella?
How does Kern Valley High serve low-income and underrepresented students?
How many students from Kern Valley High go to UC?
Your other options
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 | 108 | 7% | 22% | 21% | 49% | 30% | −19 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 106 | 1% | 11% | 16% | 72% | 12% | −11 |
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 | 114 | 1% | 22% | 63% | 14% |
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 | 84 | 27.4% | −20 | −11 |
| White | 69 | 21.7% | −38 | −40 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 31 | 41.9% | −6 | +3 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Grade gap | Cohort growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kern Valley High ← | — | 31 | 4.2% | 20.9% | — | — | 8.3% |
| California average | — | 47 | 15.8% | 35.7% | — | — | 3.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Grade gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 35 | 30 | #1439 | 11.8% | 31.3% | 22.4% | 17.7% | — |
| 2022 | 31 | 23 | #1606 | 8.7% | 23.6% | 50.9% | 14.6% | — |
| 2023 | 30 | 22 | #1672 | 5.1% | 17.9% | 41.9% | 13.3% | — |
| 2024 | 34 | 26 | #1578 | 7.2% | 29.5% | 28.7% | 11.3% | — |
| 2025 | 31 | 23 | #1661 | 4.2% | 20.9% | 32.5% | 8.3% | — |
- — Low-income students here trail the state average for their group by 11 points in ELA — worth asking how the school is closing that gap.
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 21.8% | 31.7% | +9.9pp |
| Male | 21.9% | 33.6% | +11.7pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 21.7% | 30.3% | +8.6pp |
| American Indian/Alaska Native | 9.1% | 50.0% | +40.9pp |
| Two or More Races | 34.8% | 26.1% | -8.7pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 34.2% | 44.0% | +9.8pp |
| Homeless | 31.6% | 62.5% | +30.9pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 23.7% | 36.2% | +12.5pp |
| All Students | 21.8% | 32.6% | +10.8pp |
| Filipino | — | 32.6% | — |
| Foster Youth | — | 50.0% | — |
| Year | Applied | Admitted | Enrolled | GPA (applied) | GPA (admitted) | GPA (enrolled) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 6 | 6 | ‹3 | 4.22 | 4.22 | — |
| 2021 | 7 | 5 | ‹3 | 3.77 | 3.92 | — |
| 2020 | 8 | 5 | ‹3 | 3.67 | 3.82 | — |
| 2017 | 13 | 4 | ‹3 | 3.52 | — | — |
| 2016 | 10 | 7 | ‹3 | 3.72 | 4.12 | — |
| 2015 | 7 | 4 | ‹3 | 3.84 | — | — |
| 2014 | 6 | 3 | ‹3 | 3.39 | — | — |
| 2013 | 5 | 3 | ‹3 | 3.84 | — | — |
| 2011 | 8 | 7 | 4 | 3.79 | 3.97 | — |
‹n = UC masks counts below n · a missing year means zero or masked — never assume zero · GPA cells blank for years with more than one contributing CEEB code (a summed GPA would be fabricated math) · GPAs live here and nowhere else on this page · Applied/Admitted/Enrolled reflect who applied, not what the school taught — no admit rate is computed or implied by this table. Series shown from 2011; full record to 1994 at the UC Infocenter.
| Campus | Year | Applied | Admitted | Enrolled |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Davis | 2017 | 6 | ‹3 | ‹3 |
| Irvine | 2016 | 5 | ‹3 | ‹3 |
| Los Angeles | 2017 | 5 | ‹3 | ‹3 |
| San Diego | 2020 | 5 | ‹3 | ‹3 |
| San Diego | 2017 | 5 | ‹3 | ‹3 |
| San Diego | 2016 | 6 | ‹3 | ‹3 |
| Santa Barbara | 2017 | 11 | ‹3 | ‹3 |
| Santa Barbara | 2016 | 5 | 3 | ‹3 |
| Santa Cruz | 2021 | 5 | 3 | ‹3 |
| Santa Cruz | 2020 | 5 | ‹3 | ‹3 |
| Santa Cruz | 2017 | 7 | ‹3 | ‹3 |
| Universitywide | 2022 | 6 | 6 | ‹3 |
| Universitywide | 2021 | 7 | 5 | ‹3 |
| Universitywide | 2020 | 8 | 5 | ‹3 |
| Universitywide | 2017 | 13 | 4 | ‹3 |
| Universitywide | 2016 | 10 | 7 | ‹3 |
Σ campuses ≠ universitywide — students apply to several campuses; the Universitywide row (muted) is its own independent count, never a sum of the rows above it.
| Measure | This school |
|---|---|
| AP offered | offered |
| AP course count | 2 |
| AP enrollment | 9 |
| IB participation | not offered |
| Dual enrollment | offered · 9 enrolled |
| Algebra I in grade 8 | not reported |
| Calculus sections | 1 |
| Physics sections | 1 |
| Chemistry sections | 3 |
| Total enrollment (CRDC) | 476 |
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 | 3 | 3.4% |
| California community college | 10 | 11.4% |
| In-state private | 2 | 2.3% |
| Out-of-state, 4-year | 6 | 6.8% |
| Out-of-state, 2-year | 0 | 0.0% |
| Not enrolled | 67 | 76.1% |
88 completers, class of 2023 · state-reported college-going rate 24% · % 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 2022 UC admissions rows in tables 06-07 above.
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