Summary:
Four high schools serve grades 9-12 in zip code 92701 in Santa Ana, California, offering a mix of traditional, charter, and specialized arts education with dramatic differences in performance and student experience.
The standout school is OCSA, an arts-focused school that ranks among the state's elite with very high test scores and a 98.7% graduation rate. In contrast, the comprehensive neighborhood school, Santa Ana High, part of the Santa Ana Unified district, serves a much larger population with greater economic need and has significantly lower test scores, particularly in math, though it maintains a solid 93.6% graduation rate. The smaller Nova Academy Early College High shows variable performance year-to-year, while REACH Academy faces severe challenges with very low proficiency and extremely high chronic absenteeism despite the highest per-student spending.
Key takeaways for parents are that school type matters greatly here, with the selective arts school producing very different outcomes than the others. Mathematics is a common area of struggle across most schools. Furthermore, chronic absenteeism is closely linked to lower academic performance, and higher spending per student does not automatically lead to better results, as seen in the comparison between schools. This zip code demonstrates how families have access to schools with vastly different environments and academic outcomes within the same community.
Thank you for your feedback!