Summary:
Baker, California is home to just one public high school, Baker High, a very small rural school serving grades 9-12 within the Baker Valley Unified district.
Baker High is a unique micro-school with only 31 students, which allows for an exceptionally low student-teacher ratio of 7-to-1 and highly personalized attention. However, its academic performance has shown significant volatility in recent years, with current proficiency rates in English, math, and science below state averages. The school's graduation rate of 85.7% is close to the state average, which is a notable strength given its academic challenges, and it maintains a chronic absenteeism rate better than the state as a whole.
A key finding is the school's very high per-student spending, approximately $39,500, which reflects the high fixed costs of operating a comprehensive high school in a remote area for a small number of students. Despite this substantial investment and small class sizes, a gap remains between resources and academic outcomes, suggesting other factors are at play. The school operates in a district ranked in the bottom tenth of California, indicating broader systemic challenges in the area that families should consider.
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