18 public K-12 schools in Tustin 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, Tustin has more public-school enrollment than 81% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Tustin'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.
10 of Tustin's 18 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 2 high-school records. Families comparing later grades should rely on those individual rows rather than the all-school mean.
The 66-point gap between Hillview High (Continuation) and Occs:Chep/Pchs shows the range hidden by Tustin'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.
That concentration means Tustin-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
Tustin school enrollment ranges from 142 students (lowest) to 1,627 students (highest), a spread of 1,485 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
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 Values this far above typical often signal acute resource constraints or a structurally different scale than most peers — worth reading alongside the underlying counts, not the ratio alone.
| # | School | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Hillview High (Continuation) | 66 |
| 2. | Tustin High | 43 |
| 3. | Columbus Tustin Middle | 41 |
| 4. | C. E. Utt Middle | 41 |
| 5. | Legacy Magnet Academy | 40 |
| 6. | Heritage Elementary | 38 |
| 7. | Peters Canyon Elementary | 37 |
| 8. | Pioneer Middle | 36 |
| 9. | Ladera Elementary | 35 |
| 10. | Barbara Benson Elementary | 35 |
| 11. | Tustin Connect | 29 |
| 12. | Benjamin F. Beswick Elementary | 27 |
| 13. | Tustin Ranch Elementary | 25 |
| 14. | Sycamore Magnet Academy | 22 |
| 15. | W. R. Nelson Elementary | 22 |
| 16. | Helen Estock Elementary | 21 |
| 17. | Robert Heideman Elementary | 20 |
| 18. | Occs:Chep/Pchs | - |
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.
Hillview High (Continuation) has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Tustin schools in this federal-data comparison at 66/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.
Tustin has 18 public schools with a total enrollment of 10,472 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 25.6:1.
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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.
