Summary:
The Desert Sands Unified district includes seven high schools serving grades 9-12, ranging from large comprehensive campuses to smaller continuation and alternative programs, all serving a significant population of high-need students.
Academic performance varies considerably across the district's comprehensive high schools. Palm Desert High stands out as the top performer, with proficiency rates well above state averages in English and science and matching them in math, while also boasting a 96.4% graduation rate. La Quinta High also performs strongly, with the highest graduation rate at 97.1% and solid English scores. Shadow Hills High and Indio High face greater academic challenges, particularly in mathematics where proficiency rates are significantly below the state average.
Notable challenges for the district include chronic absenteeism, which affects nearly one in three students and is above the state average at every school, and mathematics proficiency, which is a struggle outside of the top-performing school. The continuation schools, Summit High (Continuation) and Amistad High (Continuation), along with the specialized Desert Sands A.T.L.A.S., serve at-risk students with more resources per pupil and smaller classes, focusing on graduation attainment, though they show much lower standardized test scores.
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