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San Marcos High

High School
📍 1615 San Marcos Boulevard
Composite Score
out of 100
State Percentile
of high schools
State Rank
of 1,739 California high schools
🌱
Building Momentum

Every school has strengths the data doesn’t fully capture. Visit and see for yourself.

Composite scores are SchoolScope's analysis of public data from the California Dept. of Education (CAASPP, chronic absenteeism, suspension rates). They are not official CDE ratings and should not be the sole basis for school decisions. See methodology.

School overview

Enrollment
3,201 students
Student-Teacher Ratio
27:1
Free/Reduced Lunch
33%
Teachers
118 full-time

College & career readiness

Graduation Rate
95.3%
AP Exam Prepared
74.3%
A-G Completion
73.4%
College-Going Rate
81.3%

Data source: California Department of Education — ACGR, CCI, CGR reports

Dashboard indicators

ELA Year-over-Year
Declined
-14.6 pts DFS change
Math Year-over-Year
Maintained
+2.1 pts DFS change
EL Proficiency (ELPAC)
21.4%
English learners at Level 4 (Well Developed) · 195 tested

Data source: California School Dashboard 2025, ELPAC 2024

Student demographics

Hispanic41.1%
White43.2%
Asian5.8%
Black1.0%
Other8.8%

Performance breakdown

Performance breakdown for San Marcos High
CategoryPercentage
Exceeded Standard18.1%
Met Standard21.7%
Below Standard60.1%

What other rankings don't show you

Most rating sites report "40% proficient" for San Marcos High and stop there. Here's what that number hides:

18.1% of students exceeded standard while 21.7% met it. That exceeded rate is 2.6 points above the state average of 15.5%. That's 10.0 points below the San Marcos Unified district average of 28.1%. The gap between "met" and "exceeded" can reveal how much a school's curriculum challenges students beyond proficiency.

The graduation rate is 95.3% — above the state target. 73.4% of students complete A-G requirements for UC/CSU eligibility — a strong college readiness signal. 81.3% of graduates go on to college within a year.

Chronic absenteeism is 18.5%, better than the state average of 34.0%.

Why the exceeded vs. met split matters →

Key metrics

% Exceeded Standard
18.1%
Students scoring above proficient
% Met or Above
39.9%
Students meeting standard
Chronic Absenteeism
18.5%
Students missing 10%+ of days
Suspension Rate
3.3%
Students suspended at least once
Total Tested
1,451
Across all grades & subjects

ELA scores by grade

GradeTestedExceededMetNearly MetNot MetMet+Above
11th72522.5%26.5%23.0%28.0%49.0%

Math scores by grade

GradeTestedExceededMetNearly MetNot MetMet+Above
11th72613.8%16.9%23.0%46.3%30.7%

Private alternatives nearby

Private schools within ~2 miles. These schools do not participate in state testing and cannot be scored or ranked.

St. Joseph Academy
Roman Catholic · Grades PK-12 · 359 students
13:1Private1.1 mi
Pacific Ridge School
Nonsectarian · Grades 7-12 · 636 students
8:1Private2.6 mi

Data source: California Department of Education (2025 test year) · How we score · Explore all schools · Blog