Vista Continuation High: The scores are below where anyone wants them. Here's what they don't tell you.
Vista Continuation posts low test scores — and attendance holds near the state average — families haven't checked out. 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 | 21 | 0% | 7% | 70.4% | 0.0% | 14.0% | 7.5% |
| CA average · High School | 47 | 16% | 36% | 86.6% | 33.9% | 30.2% | 3.6% |
Vista Continuation High scores 21 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 11th 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 “7% proficient” and call it done. Vista Continuation deserves a closer read. The school sits in Bakersfield, where four in five students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
The headline number: 14.0% chronic absenteeism — versus 30.2% statewide. Attendance is the quietest strong signal a school can post.
The seven-year arc
Has stayed near the 11th percentile since 2019.
The pandemic drop is behind this school: 7% of students meet the standard today, above the 3% who did in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 5% | 10% | 8% | 20% | 13% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 1% | 1% | 0% | 0% | 1% |
The story this school is actually telling
Of 100 students here: 7 are proficient by 11th grade → 70 graduate → 0 pass an AP exam. The gaps between those bars are the questions to ask.
The 7 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 Vista Continuation High in Bakersfield, 14.7% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 47.2% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Vista Continuation High trails its district average for low-income students by 32.4 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (1.1% Math proficient); Hispanic students (12.8% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 13.2 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 136 students tested.
7 of 13 student groups here are too small to report — a privacy protection, not a gap.
Showing up, and staying in class
The people teaching here
Pay is set by the district, not the school.
What gets spent here
$819 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 221 students, this school is much smaller than the typical California high school (≈1450).
On the state's science test (CAST), 1% 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 Vista Continuation High a good high school?
What are Vista Continuation High's CAASPP test scores?
How does Vista Continuation High rank in California?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Vista Continuation High?
How does Vista Continuation High compare to other schools in Bakersfield?
How does Vista Continuation High serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby High Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 34
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 39
Nearby Middle Schools
2 within ~3 mi · avg 15
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 nearest schools.
| ELA | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 114 | 0% | 13% | 24% | 63% | 13% | −35 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 110 | 0% | 1% | 10% | 89% | 1% | −23 |
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 | 94 | 0% | 1% | 61% | 38% |
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 | 136 | 14.7% | −32 | −23 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 127 | 12.8% | −36 | −26 |
| English Learners | 27 | 0.0% | −7 | −10 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Grade gap | Cohort growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vista Continuation High ← | — | 21 | 0.0% | 7.0% | — | — | 7.5% |
| South High | 2.3 mi | 46 | 14.3% | 35.1% | — | — | 9.8% |
| Bakersfield High | 1 mi | 39 | 8.8% | 29.7% | — | — | 9.7% |
| Tierra Del Sol Continuation High | 2 mi | 19 | 0.4% | 2.8% | — | — | 8.0% |
| California average | — | 47 | 15.8% | 35.7% | — | — | 3.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Grade gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 14 | 7 | #1906 | 0.5% | 3.2% | 57.3% | 21.3% | — |
| 2022 | 15 | 5 | #1983 | 0.3% | 5.5% | 69.5% | 19.5% | — |
| 2023 | 18 | 8 | #1972 | 0.0% | 3.9% | 58.9% | 7.6% | — |
| 2024 | 21 | 11 | #1897 | 1.5% | 9.8% | 43.8% | 6.2% | — |
| 2025 | 21 | 11 | #1924 | 0.0% | 7.0% | 14.0% | 7.5% | — |
- — Low-income students here trail the state average for their group by 23 points in ELA — worth asking how the school is closing that gap.
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 73.2% | 14.9% | -58.3pp |
| Male | 52.6% | 8.9% | -43.7pp |
| Black/African American | 74.1% | 7.9% | -66.2pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 58.1% | 12.6% | -45.5pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 50.0% | 3.2% | -46.8pp |
| English Learners | 53.8% | 8.9% | -44.9pp |
| Homeless | 85.0% | 8.7% | -76.3pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 62.7% | 11.7% | -51.0pp |
| All Students | 61.5% | 11.6% | -49.9pp |
| Measure | This school |
|---|---|
| AP offered | not offered |
| AP course count | not reported |
| AP enrollment | not reported |
| IB participation | not offered |
| Dual enrollment | offered · 12 enrolled |
| Algebra I in grade 8 | not reported |
| Calculus sections | 0 |
| Physics sections | 0 |
| Chemistry sections | 0 |
| Total enrollment (CRDC) | 197 |
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 | 0 | 0.0% |
| California community college | 19 | 16.8% |
| In-state private | 3 | 2.6% |
| Out-of-state, 4-year | 0 | 0.0% |
| Out-of-state, 2-year | 2 | 1.8% |
| Not enrolled | 89 | 78.8% |
113 completers, class of 2023 · state-reported college-going rate 21% · % 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 2025 UC admissions rows in tables 06-07 above.
<iframe
src="https://schoolscope.co/embed/school/vista-continuation-high-6325"
width="100%" height="210" loading="lazy"
style="border:0;border-radius:12px"
title="Vista Continuation High — SchoolScope scorecard">
</iframe>Free to embed with the credit link. Data updates automatically.
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