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Tehachapi, California - 7 schools
An equity score of 36/100 ranks Tehachapi Unified #1116 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $13,678 per pupil, Tehachapi Unified ranks #1281 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
4,170
Total Enrollment
7
Schools
$13,678
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Tehachapi Unified operates 7 public schools serving 4,170 students, placing it among the smallest districts in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 4 elementary, 2 high, 1 middle 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 Kern County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $13,678 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 30.2% local, 55.6% state, and 14.2% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles. The district's equity score is 36/100, ranked #1116 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 7 schools offering Advanced Placement (12 AP courses district-wide), a 456.7:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 60.8% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 50.6% White, 41.6% Hispanic or Latino, 1.1% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Tompkins Elementary, with a diversity index of 60.7/100.
Its largest campus is Tehachapi High, enrolling 1,260 students (30% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Monroe High (Continuation), at 25 students, a 50x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Tehachapi High accounts for 30.2% of all Tehachapi Unified student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Tehachapi 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.
Tehachapi Unified school enrollment varies 50× across entities
Tehachapi Unified school enrollment ranges from 25 students (lowest) to 1,260 students (highest), a spread of 1,235 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.
Tehachapi Unified student-counselor ratio is 457:1 — high (typically associated with staffing constraints that limit per-student counselor time; CRDC data shows higher ratios cluster in larger urban systems)
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 Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.
Tehachapi Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 60.8% — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
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 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.