Whitney (Gretchen) High: High scores, healthy climate, strong attendance. We looked for a catch — we didn't find one.
Whitney (Gretchen) posts 92.7% exceeding the standard — versus 19.8% statewide — with climate numbers better than most. That doesn't make it perfect. It makes it worth a visit to find what numbers can't measure.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Grad rate | College readiness | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 97 | 93% | 99% | 99.4% | 97.1% | 4.8% | 0.3% |
| CA average · High School | 54 | 20% | 43% | 92.5% | 43.0% | 23.1% | 3.3% |
Whitney (Gretchen) High scores 97 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 99th percentile of 1,647 California high schools (CDE CAASPP 2025).
Measures test performance, attendance, and climate — not arts, community, or your kid. How we score →
⭐ High Ceiling — Ask what happens for a kid who shows up behind — a high ceiling for the top can sit right next to thin support at the bottom, and the score alone won't show you which.
Most rating sites would stop at “99% proficient” and call it done. Whitney (Gretchen) deserves a closer read. The school sits in Cerritos, where one in four students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
Whitney (Gretchen)'s low-income kids hit 98.1% 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
Has held the 99th-percentile line every tested year since 2019.
Proficiency here is back to its pre-pandemic level — 99% meet the standard, about where the school stood in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 7 | 100% | 100% | 100% | 98% | 98% |
| Grade 8 | 100% | 99% | 100% | 100% | 99% |
| Grade 11 | 99% | 100% | 99% | 100% | 100% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 7 | 99% | 99% | 99% | 98% | 96% |
| Grade 8 | 99% | 98% | 98% | 99% | 99% |
| Grade 11 | 97% | 99% | 96% | 99% | 99% |
The story this school is actually telling
Of 100 students here: 99 are proficient by 11th grade → 99 graduate → 97 pass an AP exam. The gaps between those bars are the questions to ask.
Whitney (Gretchen)'s most underrated number
98.1% 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 6 things our score weighs
California's own answer to the same question
California runs its own growth model — it follows individual children in grades 4 through 8 and compares each one against a prediction from their own prior scores. On that measure this school sits well above the middle of California high schools in reading and math together. We show it; we don't score it.
— pts vs expected is scale-score points above or below what California's model predicted for these same children from their own prior-year scores. It is not a percentage and not a percent of anything. A typical California high school lands at −3 in reading, and the middle half of them fall between −13 and +5 — the spread is wide, so read the rank, not the sign. CDE blends two consecutive years into each published figure, so adjacent years share input data and no year-over-year trend can honestly be drawn from them. It covers grades 4-8 only, and it is not part of the Scope Score — we assessed it and left it out: it tracks school demographics roughly three times as strongly as our own growth measure does, and one published year is not enough to test how stable it is.
Ask what the school is working on next. Strong numbers tell you where a school is, not where it's going.
- Ask whether extra support — tutoring, counseling, small groups — reaches kids across income lines, not just the students already ahead.
- 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 Whitney (Gretchen) High in Cerritos, 98.1% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 54.2% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Whitney (Gretchen) High outperforms its district average for low-income students by 43.9 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (96.2% Math proficient); Asian students (100.0% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 4.8 percentage points for hispanic students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 160 students tested.
5 of 12 student groups here are too small to report — a privacy protection, not a gap.
California follows these children individually and predicts each one's score from their own prior year. Each row is read against the same group at a typical California high school — not against zero, and not against this school's all-students figure, because the state's expectation already differs by group.
— 2 more groups are reported here with between 11 and 29 students. We hold those back on purpose: at that size the figure swings about 17 points on its own, and a quarter of such groups land past the state's top or bottom cut point by chance alone. They are listed with their student counts in the data appendix. — A group not listed at all had fewer than 11 students with a growth score, so California published nothing for it here. That is a privacy protection, not a judgment about those students. — Context only. None of this enters the Scope Score.
● 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 the path goes
The path below follows attendance boundaries — scores shown for each next step.
Feeder patterns derived from NCES attendance boundary data. Boundaries are approximate and may have changed — verify with your school district for current assignments.
Where graduates go
Where they went after graduation
Of Whitney (Gretchen)'s class of 2023, 87% enrolled in college somewhere within a year — a CSU, a community college, a UC, or out of state.
Class of 2023: 167 completers, 87% 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.
In fall 2025, 76 of Whitney (Gretchen)'s 176 graduates enrolled in the University of California system — Irvine the most common landing, with 19 enrollees.
campuses never sum to the universitywide figure — students apply to several
UC publishes this trend back to 1994 — no other destination has a comparable multi-year record
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, 87% of this class's predecessors enrolled in college somewhere within a year.
Data source: University of California Office of the President (UC Information Center), fall 2025 admissions cycle · college-going rate: California Department of Education, 2023 cohort.
The people teaching here
Pay is set by the district, not the school.
Whitney (Gretchen)'s teachers are authorized to teach 20 of the 40 AP subjects the College Board offers — above the 14-subject median among California schools that offer AP at all — including Calculus BC, Calculus AB, and Physics C: Mechanics.
Data source: College Board AP Course Audit, 2025 - 2026 audit year (authorization, not enrollment) · IB World Schools directory, name-matched · structural depth: 2020-21 federal snapshot, table 09
What gets spent here
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
On the state's science test (CAST), 95% 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 Whitney (Gretchen) High a good high school?
What are Whitney (Gretchen) High's CAASPP test scores?
How does Whitney (Gretchen) High rank in California?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Whitney (Gretchen) High?
How does Whitney (Gretchen) High compare to other schools in Cerritos?
How does Whitney (Gretchen) High serve low-income and underrepresented students?
What AP courses are offered at Whitney (Gretchen) High?
How many students from Whitney (Gretchen) High go to UC?
Your other options
Nearby High Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 68
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 78
Private alternatives nearby
Private schools within ~10 miles. These schools do not participate in state testing and cannot be scored or ranked.
Every number on this page
Score factors, grade-level breakdowns, subgroup proficiency, and nearest schools.
| ELA | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 7 | 163 | 78% | 20% | 2% | 0% | 98% | +51 |
| Grade 8 | 164 | 76% | 23% | 1% | 0% | 99% | +53 |
| Grade 11 | 170 | 94% | 6% | 0% | 0% | 100% | +51 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 7 | 163 | 86% | 10% | 4% | 0% | 96% | +62 |
| Grade 8 | 164 | 92% | 7% | 1% | 0% | 99% | +67 |
| Grade 11 | 170 | 92% | 7% | 1% | 0% | 99% | +75 |
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 | 334 | 66% | 29% | 5% | 0% |
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 | 160 | 98.1% | +44 | +60 |
| Asian | 296 | 100.0% | +13 | +26 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 80 | 97.5% | +47 | +59 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Grade gap | Cohort growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whitney (Gretchen) High ← | — | 97 | 92.7% | 99.4% | — | — | 0.3% |
| Cerritos High | 1.1 mi | 78 | 42.3% | 72.3% | — | — | 0.9% |
| John F. Kennedy High | 2.7 mi | 67 | 31.6% | 56.6% | — | — | 2.4% |
| Norwalk High | 2.9 mi | 59 | 18.2% | 43.6% | — | — | 1.5% |
| California average | — | 54 | 19.8% | 43.2% | — | — | 3.3% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Grade gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 97 | 99 | #1 | 88.1% | 98.2% | 3.4% | 1.0% | — |
| 2022 | 97 | 99 | #1 | 87.0% | 99.4% | 7.5% | 0.6% | — |
| 2023 | 97 | 99 | #1 | 83.8% | 97.5% | 6.0% | 0.7% | — |
| 2024 | 97 | 99 | #1 | 91.5% | 99.7% | 5.6% | 0.3% | — |
| 2025 | 97 | 99 | #1 | 92.7% | 99.4% | 4.8% | 0.3% | — |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 1.4% | 3.4% | +2.0pp |
| Male | 1.2% | 1.5% | +0.3pp |
| Asian | 1.0% | 1.7% | +0.7pp |
| Black/African American | 0.0% | 4.5% | +4.5pp |
| White | 0.6% | 1.3% | +0.7pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 2.0% | 6.0% | +4.0pp |
| Two or More Races | 8.3% | 4.0% | -4.3pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 1.1% | 4.3% | +3.2pp |
| All Students | 1.3% | 2.4% | +1.1pp |
| Filipino | — | 0.0% | — |
| Students with Disabilities | — | 5.3% | — |
| Military-Connected | — | 16.7% | — |
| Year | Applied | Admitted | Enrolled | GPA (applied) | GPA (admitted) | GPA (enrolled) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 158 | 140 | 76 | 4.14 | 4.17 | 4.19 |
| 2024 | 149 | 124 | 61 | 4.06 | 4.09 | 4.14 |
| 2023 | 144 | 118 | 67 | 4.15 | 4.17 | 4.22 |
| 2022 | 144 | 121 | 75 | 4.13 | 4.17 | 4.21 |
| 2021 | 139 | 106 | 71 | 4.00 | 4.11 | 4.14 |
| 2020 | 136 | 109 | 63 | 3.91 | 3.98 | 4.05 |
| 2019 | 130 | 102 | 61 | 3.91 | 4.00 | 4.00 |
| 2018 | 124 | 98 | 47 | 3.85 | 3.97 | 4.07 |
| 2017 | 135 | 105 | 61 | 3.88 | 3.96 | 3.99 |
| 2016 | 128 | 104 | 47 | 3.85 | 3.92 | 3.93 |
| 2015 | 129 | 105 | 41 | 3.91 | 3.99 | 3.98 |
| 2014 | 155 | 135 | 71 | 3.90 | 3.96 | 4.02 |
‹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 2014; full record to 1994 at the UC Infocenter.
| Campus | Year | Applied | Admitted | Enrolled |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berkeley | 2025 | 119 | 23 | 13 |
| Berkeley | 2024 | 123 | 23 | 12 |
| Berkeley | 2023 | 106 | 30 | 10 |
| Berkeley | 2022 | 117 | 37 | 23 |
| Berkeley | 2021 | 100 | 30 | 17 |
| Davis | 2025 | 82 | 38 | 6 |
| Davis | 2024 | 83 | 39 | 4 |
| Davis | 2023 | 65 | 29 | ‹3 |
| Davis | 2022 | 81 | 35 | 4 |
| Davis | 2021 | 55 | 38 | 6 |
| Irvine | 2025 | 150 | 65 | 19 |
| Irvine | 2024 | 135 | 65 | 19 |
| Irvine | 2023 | 134 | 67 | 27 |
| Irvine | 2022 | 131 | 53 | 14 |
| Irvine | 2021 | 123 | 55 | 9 |
| Los Angeles | 2025 | 149 | 14 | 10 |
| Los Angeles | 2024 | 130 | 12 | 6 |
| Los Angeles | 2023 | 131 | 17 | 8 |
| Los Angeles | 2022 | 129 | 15 | ‹3 |
| Los Angeles | 2021 | 114 | 20 | 4 |
| Merced | 2025 | 52 | 51 | ‹3 |
| Merced | 2024 | 14 | 14 | ‹3 |
| Merced | 2023 | 14 | 13 | ‹3 |
| Merced | 2022 | 20 | 20 | ‹3 |
| Merced | 2021 | 13 | 13 | ‹3 |
| Riverside | 2025 | 119 | 111 | 17 |
| Riverside | 2024 | 95 | 83 | 11 |
| Riverside | 2023 | 83 | 73 | 10 |
| Riverside | 2022 | 80 | 73 | 13 |
| Riverside | 2021 | 66 | 57 | 11 |
| San Diego | 2025 | 140 | 33 | 3 |
| San Diego | 2024 | 135 | 31 | 8 |
| San Diego | 2023 | 121 | 35 | 4 |
| San Diego | 2022 | 126 | 38 | 11 |
| San Diego | 2021 | 117 | 60 | 17 |
| Santa Barbara | 2025 | 102 | 49 | 6 |
| Santa Barbara | 2024 | 100 | 44 | ‹3 |
| Santa Barbara | 2023 | 98 | 47 | 5 |
| Santa Barbara | 2022 | 99 | 48 | 7 |
| Santa Barbara | 2021 | 78 | 34 | 5 |
| Santa Cruz | 2025 | 49 | 46 | ‹3 |
| Santa Cruz | 2024 | 52 | 40 | ‹3 |
| Santa Cruz | 2023 | 38 | 30 | ‹3 |
| Santa Cruz | 2022 | 35 | 23 | ‹3 |
| Santa Cruz | 2021 | 29 | 19 | ‹3 |
| Universitywide | 2025 | 158 | 140 | 76 |
| Universitywide | 2024 | 149 | 124 | 61 |
| Universitywide | 2023 | 144 | 118 | 67 |
| Universitywide | 2022 | 144 | 121 | 75 |
| Universitywide | 2021 | 139 | 106 | 71 |
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.
| Subject | Taught by |
|---|---|
| Art History | this school |
| Biology | this school |
| Calculus AB | this school |
| Calculus BC | this school |
| Chemistry | this school |
| Chinese Language and Culture | this school |
| Computer Science Principles | this school |
| English Language and Composition | this school |
| English Literature and Composition | this school |
| Human Geography | this school |
| Japanese Language and Culture | this school |
| Physics C: Mechanics | this school |
| Precalculus | this school |
| Psychology | this school |
| Research | this school |
| Seminar | this school |
| Spanish Language and Culture | this school |
| Statistics | this school |
| United States History | this school |
| World History: Modern | this school |
Authorization ≠ a section running this year — the Ledger records what the school may teach, not seat counts.
| Measure | This school |
|---|---|
| AP offered | offered |
| AP course count | 15 |
| AP enrollment | 488 |
| IB participation | not offered |
| Dual enrollment | not offered |
| Algebra I in grade 8 | offered · 123 enrolled |
| Calculus sections | 7 |
| Physics sections | 11 |
| Chemistry sections | 10 |
| Total enrollment (CRDC) | 1,020 |
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 | 66 | 39.5% |
| California State University | 34 | 20.4% |
| California community college | 8 | 4.8% |
| In-state private | 15 | 9.0% |
| Out-of-state, 4-year | 22 | 13.2% |
| Out-of-state, 2-year | 0 | 0.0% |
| Not enrolled | 22 | 13.2% |
167 completers, class of 2023 · state-reported college-going rate 87% · % 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.
| Group | Reading | n | CDE band | Math | n | CDE band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Students | +10 | 326 | Accelerated | +28 | 326 | Exceptional |
| English Only | +11 | 193 | not categorised | +25 | 193 | not categorised |
| Asian | +13 | 189 | Accelerated | +30 | 189 | Exceptional |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | +6 | 116 | Accelerated | +28 | 116 | Exceptional |
| Hispanic or Latino | +7 | 64 | Accelerated | +23 | 64 | Exceptional |
| Filipino | +4 | 47 | Average | +27 | 47 | Exceptional |
| English Learner | −10 | 16 | Moderate | +23 | 16 | Exceptional |
| Recently Reclassified Fluent-English Proficient Only | −11 | 16 | not categorised | +22 | 16 | not categorised |
Whole scale-score points above or below what CDE's model predicted for these same children from their own prior-year scores — not a percentage, not a percentile. Statewide a typical school lands near +1 with a spread of about 13 points either side, so read a figure against its group's own typical value, not against zero. Muted rows have fewer than 30 students with a growth score — published by CDE, held back from the narrative sections above because at that size the figure swings about 17 points on its own. “Not categorised” is CDE assigning no band — English Only, Recently Reclassified, and English Learners Only receive a value and no band, for every school in the state. It is not a missing number. Most figures blend two consecutive years, so adjacent published years share input data and no trend line can honestly be drawn across them. A group absent from this table had fewer than 11 students with a growth score and was never published. Grades 4-8 only. None of this enters the Scope Score — it is more strongly correlated with school demographics than our own growth measure, and one published year is not enough to test its reliability.
<iframe
src="https://schoolscope.co/embed/school/whitney-gretchen-high-1880"
width="100%" height="210" loading="lazy"
style="border:0;border-radius:12px"
title="Whitney (Gretchen) 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