Every figure on PlainSchools is rendered directly from the source NCES, CRDC and F-33 federal
records, no number is typed in by an editor. District totals are aggregated directly from the schools reporting under this district in the source records. See our
editorial standards & corrections policy, the
methodology behind these numbers, or
report a data error. Data current as of June 2026.
Arcadia, California - 11 schools
An equity score of 29/100 ranks Arcadia Unified #1260 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $14,868 per pupil, Arcadia Unified ranks #999 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
8,818
Total Enrollment
11
Schools
$14,868
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Arcadia Unified operates 11 public schools serving 8,818 students, placing it among the smaller districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 6 elementary, 3 middle, 1 high, 1 combined schools, a compact enough portfolio that families can compare every campus directly before they move, rent, or enrol. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Los Angeles County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $14,868 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending. See how California compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 54.7% local, 36.2% state, and 9.1% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers. The district's equity score is 29/100, ranked #1260 of 1517 in California against a state average of 50, notably less even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 11 schools offering Advanced Placement (20 AP courses district-wide), a 516:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 6.7% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 64.3% Asian, 18.9% Hispanic or Latino, 8.0% White across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Rancho Learning Center (Alternative), with a diversity index of 73.3/100.
Its largest campus is Arcadia High, enrolling 2,939 students (32% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Rancho Learning Center (Alternative), at 64 students, a 46x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Arcadia High accounts for 32.4% of all Arcadia Unified student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Arcadia Unified-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: high. A single dominant campus often anchors a district's program offerings and staffing patterns; the share helps explain why district-wide averages may not reflect the typical neighbourhood-school experience. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Arcadia Unified school enrollment varies 46× across entities
Arcadia Unified school enrollment ranges from 64 students (lowest) to 2,939 students (highest), a spread of 2,875 students. That ratio is among the widest observed and reflects extreme enrollment heterogeneity, the district operates both small specialty programs and large comprehensive campuses inside a single budgeting unit. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Arcadia Unified student-counselor ratio is 516:1 — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment, districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted 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.
Arcadia Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 6.7% — well below typical (typically associated with unusually small scale or exceptionally high per-unit investment)
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Values this far below typical often correlate with unusually small scale or population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se — worth checking whether the underlying denominator is itself an outlier.