Summary:
Valley Center-Pauma Unified has two high schools serving grades 9–12: Valley Center High, with 1,075 students, and Oak Glen High, with 78. In 2025–26, both schools were below state proficiency rates in all three tested subjects, but the results show a markedly uneven picture across the area. The most important difference is that Valley Center reported stronger proficiency, graduation, dropout, and attendance outcomes than Oak Glen.
Valley Center High stands out as the stronger performer on every reported measure. Its all-grades proficiency was 48% in ELA, 21% in math, and 24% in science, compared with 24%, 5%, and 10% at Oak Glen High—gaps of 25, 15, and 14 percentage points. Valley Center’s ELA result was close to the state’s 49%, while both schools were further behind in math. Completion and attendance figures also differed: graduation was 99% at Valley Center and 79% at Oak Glen; dropout was 0% versus 21%; and chronic absenteeism was 24% versus 77%.
Both schools improved in all-grades proficiency from 2024–25 to 2025–26, with Oak Glen’s biggest gain in ELA: 21 points, from 3% to 24%. Valley Center gained 6 points in ELA and math and 1 point in science; Oak Glen gained 2 points in math and 5 in science. SchoolDigger’s percentile ranking rose for Oak Glen, from 4 to 18 between 2023–24 and 2025–26, while Valley Center’s fell from 60 to 43; these rankings are separate from proficiency rates. As context, in 2024–25, free/reduced lunch eligible figures were 77% at Oak Glen and 62% at Valley Center; Oak Glen reported a 31.2 student-teacher ratio, while Valley Center’s ratio was not provided. Oak Glen’s small enrollment means its results may be more sensitive to changes in the number of students.
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