Highlands Community Charter

Highlands Community Charter is an alternative public charter school located in Sacramento, California, serving grades 1-12 with a large student population of 9,069. While the school has a relatively high graduation rate around 86-87%, it also has an extremely high dropout rate of around 90%, which is significantly higher than the state average. Additionally, Highlands Community Charter struggles with very high chronic absenteeism rates, ranging from 20-30% in recent years, much higher than nearby schools and the state average.

Academically, Highlands Community Charter students perform significantly below the state average in both English Language Arts and Mathematics proficiency across all grade levels. For example, in 12th grade science, only 8.33% of Highlands students were proficient compared to the state average of 28.02%. The school also has an extremely high percentage of students (over 90%) who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a very high-need student population. Despite the high needs, Highlands Community Charter District spends a relatively high amount per student, around $16,000-$17,000 in recent years, which is higher than the state average.

When compared to nearby alternative charter schools, such as Heritage Peak Charter and Natomas Charter, Highlands Community Charter performs significantly worse on key metrics like graduation rates, test scores, and chronic absenteeism. This suggests the school faces significant challenges in serving its large, high-need student population and may need to focus on improving attendance, instruction, and resource allocation to drive better student outcomes.