NCES CCD 2024-25 8 schools CA

Best-Resourced Schools in Taft, CA

Compiled from official source data by .

8 public K-12 schools in Taft 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
8
Schools
3,553
Students
17.8/100
Avg Resource Index
22.9:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Lean reported-resource profile

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Taft has more public-school enrollment than 37% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Taft'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.

The school portfolio is elementary-weighted

5 of Taft's 8 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 1 middle and 2 high-school records. Families comparing later grades should rely on those individual rows rather than the all-school mean.

High measured need meets a thin staffing ratio

Taft's reporting schools show 74.7% free-lunch eligibility across measured enrollment, alongside an average 22.9:1 student-teacher ratio. These are separate constraints: one describes the economic context of enrolled students and the other compares student and teacher headcounts. The 38-point gap between Buena Vista High (Continuation) and Roosevelt Elementary is therefore more useful than the city mean alone. A school with a similar ratio may still report different counselor access, attendance, or gifted-program availability, so open the campus records before drawing conclusions about student support.

City enrollment
Top 63%
School count
Top 54%
Resource Index average
1st percentile
Teacher staffing
6th percentile

Taft Union High accounts for 29.9% of all Taft public-school enrollment

That dominant concentration means Taft-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 NCES Common Core of Data

Taft school enrollment varies 13× across entities

Taft school enrollment ranges from 85 students (lowest) to 1,064 students (highest), a spread of 979 students. That spread reflects typical urban portfolio variation between specialty programs and large neighbourhood schools. 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

Taft reports 74.7% free-lunch eligibility

The reported share sits between 62.5% and 75%, above a simple majority but below the highest descriptive band used here. 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

Taft student-teacher ratio is 22.9:1 — 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 NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. Buena Vista High (Continuation) 48
2. Taft Union High 21
3. Lincoln Junior High 18
4. Taft Primary 13
5. Parkview Elementary 12
6. Roosevelt Elementary 10
7. Conley Elementary 10
8. Jefferson Elementary 10

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Taft

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 Buena Vista High (Continuation) 51.4/100
  2. 2 Parkview Elementary 50.0/100
  3. 3 Taft Union High 49.4/100
  4. 4 Lincoln Junior High 43.5/100
  5. 5 Taft Primary 42.4/100

What do families ask about schools in Taft?

Which Taft school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

Buena Vista High (Continuation) has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Taft schools in this federal-data comparison at 48/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Taft, CA? ▼

Taft has 8 public schools with a total enrollment of 3,553 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 22.9:1.

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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.