28 public K-12 schools in Orange from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.
National city placement
According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Orange has more public-school enrollment than 87% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Orange's average Resource Investment Index falls in the lower portion of the 4,487-city comparison set. The index is a resource snapshot, not an academic grade: it reflects the federal staffing, counselor, gifted-program, and attendance fields available for local campuses. The most useful next step is to open the individual schools below and identify which component is pulling each score down, because the same city average can hide very different campus-level constraints.
17 of Orange's 28 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 4 high-school records. Families comparing later grades should rely on those individual rows rather than the all-school mean.
The 60-point gap between Ousd Community Day and Santiago Middle shows the range hidden by Orange'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.
Orange school enrollment ranges from 4 students (lowest) to 1,795 students (highest), a spread of 1,791 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 NCES Common Core of Data
The reported share clears the 50% majority mark. Title I operates under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), but its statutory allocation uses additional LEA-level counts and rules not represented by this average. This percentage is an economic-need context measure; it does not establish a Title I award, show dollars received, or describe how funds are distributed among campuses.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data NCES Common Core of Data
Each school district has independent budgeting, hiring, and service delivery authority. The fragmentation reflects historical patterns of inter-municipal boundary lines that pre-date modern city growth, students in different parts of the same city can attend different districts with different per-pupil spending, calendars, and graduation requirements. Per-region variation is largest in fragmented systems because each school district sets its own budget, contracts, and priorities without higher-level coordination above the regulatory floor.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data NCES Common Core of Data
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 NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe
14% of the city's listed public-school campuses are reported as charter schools in NCES CCD. Charter status identifies a different governance arrangement; it does not establish admissions availability, academic quality, or the share of city students enrolled in those campuses. Open each school record to compare enrollment and staffing directly.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data NCES Common Core of Data
| # | School | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Ousd Community Day | 71 |
| 2. | Ousd Home Sch | 54 |
| 3. | Richland Continuation High | 50 |
| 4. | Orange County Classical Academy | 47 |
| 5. | Linda Vista Elementary | 45 |
| 6. | Mcpherson Magnet | 35 |
| 7. | Handy Elementary | 35 |
| 8. | Esplanade Elementary | 35 |
| 9. | Yorba Middle | 34 |
| 10. | Palmyra Elementary | 33 |
| 11. | Prospect Elementary | 33 |
| 12. | Unity Middle College High | 33 |
| 13. | Chapman Hills Elementary | 32 |
| 14. | Orange High | 31 |
| 15. | Fletcher Mandarin Language & Gate Academy | 31 |
| 16. | Portola Middle | 31 |
| 17. | Ousd Edge Virtual Academy | 31 |
| 18. | California Iinspire Academy | 30 |
| 19. | West Orange Elementary | 30 |
| 20. | El Modena High | 28 |
| 21. | Jordan Academy of Language and Computer Science | 28 |
| 22. | La Veta Elementary | 28 |
| 23. | Sycamore Elementary | 26 |
| 24. | Olive Elementary | 26 |
| 25. | Cambridge Elementary | 24 |
| 26. | Taft Elementary | 23 |
| 27. | Tomorrow's Leadership Collaborative (Tlc) Charter | 20 |
| 28. | Santiago Middle | 11 |
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.
Ousd Community Day has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Orange schools in this federal-data comparison at 71/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.
Orange has 28 public schools with a total enrollment of 13,731 students. 4 are charter schools. Average student-teacher ratio: 22.1:1.
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.
