Chautauqua High (Continuation)

Chautauqua High (Continuation) is a small continuation high school in Big Bear City, California, serving grades 8–12 and enrolling 33 students. Chronic absenteeism is a serious concern: 96% of students were chronically absent in 2025–2026, compared with 18% statewide and 28% in Bear Valley Unified; nearby rates ranged from 30% to 90%. Most important, the school reported 0% proficiency in English language arts, math, and science in 2025–2026.

Chautauqua’s proficiency results are below the state, district, and nearby schools in every subject. The gaps with the state are 49 points in English, 38 in math, and 36 in science; compared with Bear Valley Unified, they are 44, 31, and 38 points. Nearby schools with reported all-grade scores averaged 55% in English, 23% in math, and 36% in science. Math is the closest subject to nearby and district results, but Chautauqua still reports 0% proficiency. In the available 11th-grade comparisons, Big Bear High reported 69% proficiency in English, 33% in math, and 51% in science, while Lucerne Valley High reported 41% in English and 13% in math.

Results have not shown sustained improvement: math was 0% in every reported year, while English briefly reached 6% and science 17% before both returned to 0%; the school’s gaps with the state widened from 2022–2023 to 2025–2026. SchoolDigger ranks Chautauqua 2,130th of 2,137 schools statewide, at the 0th percentile with 0 stars; Big Bear is at the 77th percentile with 4 stars, and Lucerne Valley at the 32nd percentile with 2 stars. Chautauqua’s 2024–2025 student–teacher ratio was 39.2:1, compared with 15.1:1 to 18.6:1 at nearby schools, and 85% of its students were free/reduced lunch eligible that year. In SchoolDigger’s older 2017–2018 rankings, the school’s standing for Male Students was at the 13th percentile and for White Students at the 10th percentile, below its overall 30th percentile; these historical measures describe how well the school served those groups at that time. Mountain View’s latest test scores are suppressed, and Chautauqua serves a different grade span from nearby high schools.