Original Research by School Decision on Health Sciences High and Middle College
Health Sciences High and Middle College is a charter school serving high school and middle school students in San Diego. The school operates as its own school district and sits in a neighborhood with housing values near the state average and rental costs modest by regional standards.
The school enrolls a student population that is predominantly Hispanic, with a substantial share of Black students and smaller representations of other groups. Three-quarters of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting a community with significant economic need. Enrollment is small for a high school, distributed across grades nine through twelve, with 9th grade the smallest cohort and 11th grade the largest.
State testing data from spring 2025 shows proficiency in English language arts at a low rate, proficiency in math at a very low rate, and proficiency in science below the state typical mark. Only one year of data is available, so trends cannot yet be assessed. A parent may want to look into what the school is doing to support students toward proficiency in mathematics in particular, and what the baseline and growth look like when comparing students year to year. The school does not report a graduation rate; this may reflect incomplete data availability or a feature of how this particular charter and its student cohort are tracked by the state.
The school has recently made two substantial changes. It has expanded downward to include middle school grades, with students now able to start in 8th grade rather than 9th, creating a longer pathway through one school. At the same time, the governing board adopted an equity-focused mathematics placement policy in which all incoming 9th graders are placed into the same high school-level course, Integrated Math 1, rather than being sorted into faster or slower tracks. The school remains fully inclusive with no separate remedial or special education classrooms. This approach aims to move all students toward college-level mathematics by grade eleven. The shift trades the flexibility of tracked entry for uniform rigor and removes the practice of placing students into different courses based on prior performance. For families, this means all ninth graders take the same course with differentiated support within the classroom; a parent weighing this school should ask what that support looks like and how the school handles the range of preparation students bring.
The school positions itself around health sciences as a theme. Program details beyond the math policy and middle school expansion were not available in accessible sources, so a parent interested in course breadth, elective offerings, or dual-credit pathways should contact the school directly. Data on special education enrollment, English learner enrollment, staff size, and attendance are not reported in the sources reviewed, gaps that often reflect either the charter's own data-reporting structure or incomplete state capture of small schools.
Health Sciences High and Middle College serves a community with high economic need and positions itself as a fully inclusive, de-tracked secondary school. The recent math and grade-span changes reflect an explicit choice about equity and access over traditional ability grouping. The low proficiency numbers raise questions about how well this model is serving its students academically in the near term, a reality a parent should investigate directly with the school alongside the school's own analysis of student growth and college-readiness outcomes.
See more original research from School Decision →