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Bishop, California - 6 schools
An equity score of 46/100 ranks Bishop Unified #869 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $13,814 per pupil, Bishop Unified ranks #1253 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
1,930
Total Enrollment
6
Schools
$13,814
Per-Pupil Spending
High, Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Bishop Unified operates 6 public schools serving 1,930 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 3 high, 1 elementary, 1 middle, 1 combined schools, a small enough portfolio that most families will interact with nearly every campus in the district at some point. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Inyo County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $13,814 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 55.5% local, 30.9% state, and 13.7% 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 46/100, ranked #869 of 1517 in California against a state average of 50, in line with the typical spread seen across the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 6 schools offering Advanced Placement (5 AP courses district-wide), a 135:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 33.6% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 40.7% White, 35.6% Hispanic or Latino, 0.4% Asian across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Palisade Glacier High (Continuation), with a diversity index of 69.7/100.
Its largest campus is Bishop Elementary, enrolling 832 students (44% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Keith B. Bright High (Juvenile Hall), at 3 students, a 277x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Bishop Elementary accounts for 43.1% of all Bishop Unified student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Bishop Unified-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: elementary. 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.
Bishop Unified school enrollment varies 277× across entities
Bishop Unified school enrollment ranges from 3 students (lowest) to 832 students (highest), a spread of 829 students. That ratio is an extreme outlier spread — among the widest gaps observed anywhere in this dataset. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Bishop Unified has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 51.9% of the population qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch
free or reduced-price lunch eligibility is the federal threshold for Title I funding allocations, established under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015). Areas above 75% eligibility receive concentration grants on top of the basic Title I formula. Regions with eligibility this high typically draw a substantially larger federal funding share relative to their local tax base, which can either offset or reinforce existing gaps depending on allocation policy.
Bishop Unified student-counselor ratio is 135:1 — well below typical (typically associated with unusually small scale or exceptionally high per-unit investment)
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 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.
Bishop Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 33.6% — high (typically associated with higher-than-average disruption; recent CRDC data showed elevated rates persisting after pandemic-era schooling changes)
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 Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.