Summary:
The South Monterey County Joint Union High district serves grades 9-12 through four high schools in a primarily rural area, with two traditional comprehensive schools and two alternative programs for a total of over 2,600 students.
Among the schools, King City High stands out as the highest-performing, with the best test scores and a strong 95% graduation rate, while Greenfield High shows encouraging improvement and also boasts a graduation rate above 94%. Both comprehensive schools have significantly lower chronic absenteeism and much higher graduation rates than the district's alternative schools, Portola-Butler Continuation High and Pinnacle Coastal Valley High, which serve students needing a different educational setting.
Key insights for parents are that the district's English Language Arts performance is a relative strength, but math scores are a major area for improvement across all schools. The traditional high schools are very successful at helping students graduate, but there is a wide gap in academic results and student attendance between the comprehensive and alternative programs. The district faces the challenge of improving core academic proficiency while supporting the distinct needs of students in all its school environments.
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