Original Research by School Decision on March Valley
March Valley is a small alternative high school in Moreno Valley serving grades nine through twelve. With an enrollment of roughly a hundred students, it operates as a public alternative school rather than a charter, within the Moreno Valley Unified School District.
The school serves a student population that is predominantly Hispanic, with the vast majority qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. Nearly all students meet criteria for economic assistance, reflecting the economic context of the neighborhoods the school draws from. The student composition is concentrated in the tenth and twelfth grades, with a smaller ninth-grade cohort.
State testing and academic performance data were not available for March Valley. This absence of reported results is typical for alternative schools, which often sit outside the state accountability system or serve populations and pathways where traditional proficiency measures do not apply. A parent would want to ask the school directly about its assessment approach, student outcomes, and how it measures academic progress. The same applies to graduation rate and chronic absenteeism reporting; these metrics were not available in the data, and parents should inquire with the school about completion rates and attendance patterns.
Moreno Valley itself is a large suburban city in the Inland Empire, predominantly car-dependent, with a housing market that has appreciated and rents that have ticked upward over the past year. The city is built out as single-family neighborhoods interspersed with major commercial and logistics facilities, and it continues to add housing stock. A planned downtown center is under development. The broader school district recently secured voter approval for a substantial facilities bond in November 2024, which will fund modernization and technology upgrades across its schools over the coming years; this tax levy directly affects homeowners' property bills while the bonds are outstanding.
Alternative schools typically serve students whose academic, behavioral, or personal circumstances require a different educational structure than traditional comprehensive high school. Some students choose alternative pathways by design, while others are placed there after difficulty in traditional settings. Without state testing results or graduation data, the clearest picture of March Valley's role would come from the school itself: what its population looks like beyond the demographic snapshot, what programs or instructional approach it offers, what graduation or completion outcomes it achieves, and which students it is designed to serve. Parents considering the school would benefit from a direct conversation about curriculum, support services, class size, and the pathway the school provides toward either traditional high school completion or credential alternatives.
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