NCES CCD 2024-25 22 schools CA

Best-Resourced Schools in Carlsbad, CA

Compiled from official source data by .

22 public K-12 schools in Carlsbad from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.

PlainSchools home → About this data
22
Schools
13,964
Students
39.9/100
Avg Resource Index
20.9:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Middle-of-corpus city profile

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Carlsbad has more public-school enrollment than 87% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Carlsbad sits in the broad middle of the national city distribution rather than at a single obvious extreme. Its scale, average Resource Investment Index, and staffing position need to be read together: a middle placement on one measure does not cancel a stronger or weaker result on another. The percentile panel makes those dimensions explicit, and the school table shows where the city aggregate breaks into materially different campus profiles.

The school portfolio is elementary-weighted

15 of Carlsbad's 22 listed schools are elementary campuses. That composition means citywide enrollment and staffing averages are influenced more by early-grade operating patterns than by the city's 3 middle and 3 high-school records. Families comparing later grades should rely on those individual rows rather than the all-school mean.

Campus spread matters more than the city mean

The 48-point gap between Carlsbad Village Academy and La Costa Meadows Elementary shows the range hidden by Carlsbad's average Resource Investment Index. The city figure is useful for national placement, but families ultimately choose among campuses with different grade spans, enrollment, district affiliations, and reported support fields. Start with schools serving the relevant grade level, then compare the index components rather than assuming the city average describes any one classroom.

City enrollment
Top 13%
School count
Top 13%
Resource Index average
45th percentile
Teacher staffing
12th percentile

Carlsbad High accounts for 16.7% of all Carlsbad public-school enrollment

That concentration means Carlsbad-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: High. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Carlsbad school enrollment varies 61× across entities

Carlsbad school enrollment ranges from 38 students (lowest) to 2,336 students (highest), a spread of 2,298 students. That ratio is an extreme outlier spread — among the widest gaps observed anywhere in this dataset. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Carlsbad student-teacher ratio is 20.9:1 — high (typically associated with larger urban scale or staffing constraints that have widened the headcount gap)

student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. Carlsbad Village Academy 75
2. Carlsbad Seaside Academy 74
3. Kelly Elementary 54
4. Poinsettia Elementary 47
5. Aviara Oaks Elementary 43
6. Magnolia Elementary 43
7. Hope Elementary 40
8. El Camino Creek Elementary 40
9. Olivenhain Pioneer Elementary 39
10. Calavera Hills Elementary 38
11. Aviara Oaks Middle 36
12. Pacific Rim Elementary 36
13. La Costa Heights Elementary 36
14. Sage Creek High 35
15. Valley Middle 35
16. Buena Vista Elementary 34
17. Jefferson Elementary 32
18. Calavera Hills Middle 31
19. Carlsbad High 28
20. Carrillo Elementary 28
21. La Costa Meadows Elementary 27
22. Mission Estancia Elementary 27

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Carlsbad

Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.

  1. 1 Sage Creek High 66.9/100
  2. 2 Poinsettia Elementary 65.3/100
  3. 3 Carrillo Elementary 63.8/100
  4. 4 Calavera Hills Elementary 62.6/100
  5. 5 Calavera Hills Middle 62.2/100

What do families ask about schools in Carlsbad?

Which Carlsbad school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

Carlsbad Village Academy has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Carlsbad schools in this federal-data comparison at 75/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Carlsbad, CA? ▼

Carlsbad has 22 public schools with a total enrollment of 13,964 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 20.9:1.

Other Cities in California

Los Angeles
574 schools
San Diego
284 schools
San Jose
234 schools
Sacramento
197 schools
Fresno
180 schools
Bakersfield
146 schools

Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in California →

Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.