How do students perform on state assessments in reading and math?
Based on third-party summaries of California’s 2024–25 results, about 84% of Del Norte’s Grade 11 students reached the state standard in English language arts and about 74% in math on the CAASPP, and 65% of those tested reached it on the California Science Test.
| Measure | Del Norte | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| English language arts (CAASPP, Grade 11) | 84% | 2024–25 |
| Math (CAASPP, Grade 11) | 74% | 2024–25 |
| Science (California Science Test) | 29% exceeded · 36% met | 601 students tested |
These are single-year results for one grade level, so they say nothing about how much students grew year over year, and we found no statewide or district figure to set beside them. SchoolScope describes its figures as its own reading of public California Department of Education data, not an official rating. The school’s official School Accountability Report Card is listed on its Site Reports page; it is a file we could not open.
What's the graduation rate, and how college-ready are graduates?
Based on a third party’s reading of California Department of Education data, 98% of Del Norte’s 2024–25 four-year cohort graduated (626 of 639), and 87.5% of the 2025 graduating class (559 of 639) were rated Prepared on the state’s College/Career Indicator.
| Signal | What is reported | Who reports it |
|---|---|---|
| 4-year graduation rate | 98% (626 of 639), 2024–25 | SchoolScope |
| College/Career Indicator, Prepared | 87.5% (559 of 639), 2025 | SchoolScope |
| Graduates who met the A–G course requirements | 88.7% | SchoolScope |
| College credit while in school | Introduction to Sociology 100, Financial Accounting 201, Introduction to Medical Careers 102 | The school |
SchoolScope states that its figures are its own reading of public data and not an official rating. Where graduates go after Del Norte, whether to college, work or service, is not published on any page we could read, and AP exam scores were not found either.
What's the real class size and student-teacher ratio?
Based on federal figures republished by a third party, Del Norte has a student–teacher ratio of about 23.8 to 1 for 2024–25, with 2,557 students and 107.3 full-time-equivalent teachers. That is a school-wide ratio, not a count of students in a classroom, and we found no published average class size.
| Source | Figure | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| allk12 (federal data) | 23.8 to 1 | 2,557 students; 107.3 full-time-equivalent teachers |
| SchoolScope (state data) | 118 teachers | Head count; no ratio stated |
| Ed-Data | 2,514 students | 2025–26 enrollment |
Actual section sizes will differ by subject. The school’s FAQ says each class meets for 70 minutes every day on a trimester calendar, with four or five classes per trimester, and does not give section sizes. Asking counseling for typical sizes in the laboratory sciences and the computer science sequence is the reliable check.
What curriculum does the school actually offer beyond the basics?
Beyond core courses, Del Norte lists 22 Advanced Placement courses for 2026–27, and its course catalog sets out a five-course computer science sequence, Project Lead the Way engineering courses, Robotics, a three-course honors biomedical sequence, and media courses in animation, game design and digital production.
| Strand | What is listed | Where from |
|---|---|---|
| Advanced Placement | 22 courses, including Calculus AB and BC, Physics C: Mechanics and Electricity & Magnetism, Computer Science Principles and A, Statistics, Biology, Chemistry and Environmental Science | AP page |
| Computer science | Computer Science & Software Engineering 1–2, AP Computer Science Principles, Data Structures 1, AP Computer Science A and Data Structures 2, in sequence | Catalog |
| Engineering | Robotics 1–2; Honors Introduction to Engineering Design and Honors Principles of Engineering (Project Lead the Way) | Catalog |
| Biomedical | Honors Principles of Biomedical Sciences, Human Body Systems and Medical Interventions | Catalog |
| Media & design | 3D Computer Animation, Art of Game Design, Digital Media Productions, photography | Catalog |
| College credit | Dual enrollment with Palomar College and CSU San Marcos, for Grades 10–12 | Dual Enrollment page |
The school’s FAQ still says Del Norte offers 19 AP classes and honors courses in English only; the AP page and the catalog are newer and list 22 AP courses and honors engineering and biomedical courses, so this answer follows them. The catalog names no AI, cybersecurity or energy course.
Which future-critical STEM fields is this school genuinely strong in—and which ones are major gaps?
Based on the school’s catalog and external competition records, Del Norte is strong in cybersecurity, robotics, computer science and biomedical engineering, developing in biotechnology, and weak in AI and data science and in clean energy; battery storage is absent altogether. The overall score is 58/100, Developing.
| Field | Our grade | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| Cybersecurity | Excellent · 4.0/5 | CyberPatriot Open Division national titles 2020 to 2023; no cybersecurity course |
| Robotics | Excellent · 4.0/5 | FIRST Championship 2023; engineering award 2024; control award 2025 |
| Computer Science | Excellent · 4.0/5 | Five-course sequence with a Data Structures capstone |
| Biomedical Engineering | Excellent · 4.0/5 | Three honors courses and a White Coat Ceremony; no device-design course |
| Biotechnology | Developing · 3.0/5 | AP Biology and student bioinformatics research; no biotechnology course |
| AI & Data | Weak · 2.0/5 | AP Statistics; no AI or data-science course |
| Clean Energy | Weak · 1.0/5 | AP Environmental Science and Marine Science only |
Earth systems, aerospace and advanced manufacturing reach exposure at most, and batteries and energy storage have no coursework or record at all. The cybersecurity and robotics results come from outside the school, and how the cybersecurity teams connect to the school day is not published.
Do students get access to advanced coursework, specialist electives and serious competitions?
Based on the school’s AP page and 2026–27 catalog, Del Norte lists 22 Advanced Placement courses — among them Calculus BC, Physics C in two parts, Computer Science A and Statistics — plus honors engineering and biomedical sequences, and its students have placed in outside competitions in cybersecurity, robotics and science research.
- Mathematics and science: Calculus AB and BC, Pre-Calculus, Statistics, Physics C: Mechanics and Electricity & Magnetism, Chemistry, Biology and Environmental Science, several with a seminar section.
- Computing: AP Computer Science Principles and AP Computer Science A, each followed by a Data Structures course.
- Specialist electives: Honors Introduction to Engineering Design, Honors Principles of Engineering, Robotics, the honors biomedical sequence, Marine Science and Art of Game Design.
- Competitions: CyberPatriot Open Division national champions four seasons running, 2020 to 2023; the FIRST Championship in 2023; two Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholars in 2024, one of them among the 40 finalists.
We found no AP exam score results for the school, so we cannot say how students do on the exams. Del Norte entries also appear in the 2025 San Diego science-fair senior first awards, in categories from computer science to bioinformatics and biomedical engineering.
How strong is it in robotics, engineering and hands-on problem solving?
Based on FIRST’s event records, Del Norte’s Team Optix (FRC Team 3749, a team since 2011) reached the FIRST Championship in 2023, won the Excellence in Engineering Award at the 2024 San Diego Regional and won the Innovation in Control Award there in 2025; the catalog adds Robotics 1–2 and two Project Lead the Way engineering courses. We grade robotics Excellent, at 4.0 out of 5.
| Season | Events | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Aerospace Valley Regional; FIRST Championship | Regional FIRST Impact Award and Championship Qualifying Award; Curie Division, 56th of 78 |
| 2024 | Ventura County Regional; San Diego Regional | Fourth of 48; Excellence in Engineering Award |
| 2025 | San Diego Regional | Seventh of 51; Innovation in Control Award |
| 2026 | District events; State Championship | Team Sustainability Award; District FIRST Impact Award; 57th of 60 at the State Championship |
Team Optix is a team, not a course: the catalog describes Robotics 1–2 and does not mention it. We found no advanced robotics course and no route beyond school, which is why we stop at 4.0 and not 5.0.
Will my child develop meaningful cybersecurity and digital-safety skills?
Based on the district’s announcement and the competition’s published results, CyberAegis teams from Del Norte won the CyberPatriot Open Division national title in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, and a Del Norte team placed third in 2024. We grade cybersecurity Excellent, at 4.0 out of 5.
| Season | Del Norte team | Open Division result |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | CyberAegis Strange Quark II | National champion |
| 2021 | CyberAegis Cobalt | National champion |
| 2022 | CyberAegis Flashpoint | National champion |
| 2023 | CyberAegis Tempest; Drift | National champion; third |
| 2024 | CyberAegis Aegir; Triton | Third; runner-up |
What we could not establish is how the teams connect to the school day: the 2026–27 catalog has no cybersecurity course, and the CyberAegis site names Del Norte beside two other schools. The Air & Space Forces Association prints Del Norte’s city as Escondido, which we read as a slip. The most recent result we found is from 2024.
Will your child be ready for jobs that don’t exist yet?
Here’s what the evidence actually shows for Del Norte — not what the brochure claims.
58/100 — Developing overall. Del Norte’s CyberAegis teams won CyberPatriot Open Division national titles from 2020 to 2023, its FIRST Robotics Competition team reached the FIRST Championship in 2023 and won an engineering award in 2024 and a control award in 2025, and its computer science sequence runs from Computer Science & Software Engineering through AP Computer Science A to a Data Structures capstone with articulated college credit.
But: battery storage is absent, and clean energy and aerospace are lacking.
Best positioned forCybersecurity, Robotics, Computer Science
Underdeveloped inBatteries, Clean Energy, Aerospace
Future-critical exposure5/15 domains
Very strong
- None
Strong
- Cybersecurity
- Robotics
- Computer Science
- Biomedical Engineering
Limited
- Biotechnology
Little / no pathway
- AI & Data
- Earth & Geospatial
- Clean Energy
- Aerospace
- Advanced Manufacturing
- Batteries
Best fit for
Less ideal for
Where the marketing exceeds the evidence
No certificate or associate-degree pathway is named for any of the five.
Where the school is stronger than its marketing suggests
Where the marketing exceeds the evidence
No course titled Internet Publishing is in the catalog.
Where the school is stronger than its marketing suggests
Curriculum
- AP Statistics 1–2 and its seminar (Grades 10–12)
Evidence seen
- The 2026–27 course catalog
What's missing
- No AI, machine-learning or data-science course in the catalog
- No AI or data-science club, project or competition record found
Evidence seen
- CyberPatriot Open Division national champions four seasons running — CyberAegis Strange Quark II (2020), Cobalt (2021), Flashpoint (2022) and Tempest (2023) — each named by the district as a Del Norte High School team
- CyberPatriot XVI (2024): a Del Norte team third in the Open Division and another runner-up, listed by the Air & Space Forces Association under Del Norte High School (it prints the city as Escondido)
What's missing
- No cybersecurity course in the 2026–27 catalog
- How the CyberAegis teams connect to the school day — a class, a club or an outside programme — is not published
- The most recent result found is from 2024
Curriculum
- Robotics 1–2 (Grades 9–12): engineering teams design, build and test robots
- Honors Introduction to Engineering Design and Honors Principles of Engineering, in the Project Lead the Way engineering pathway
Evidence seen
- FIRST Robotics Competition Team 3749, Team Optix, rookie year 2011
- 2023: Regional FIRST Impact Award and the FIRST Championship Qualifying Award at the Aerospace Valley Regional, then the FIRST Championship in Houston (Curie Division, 56th of 78)
- 2024: Excellence in Engineering Award at the San Diego Regional, and fourth of 48 at the Ventura County Regional
- 2025: seventh of 51 at the San Diego Regional, with the Innovation in Control Award
- 2026: the Team Sustainability Award and the District FIRST Impact Award, then the FIRST California Southern State Championship (57th of 60)
What's missing
- No advanced robotics course in the catalog
- No robotics-related route beyond school is evidenced
Curriculum
- AP Environmental Science 1–2 and its seminar (Grades 10–12)
- Marine Science (Grades 10–12)
Evidence seen
- The 2026–27 course catalog
What's missing
- No energy or climate-technology course in the catalog
- No energy club, project or competition record found
Curriculum
- AP Biology 3–4 and its seminar (Grades 10–12)
Evidence seen
- Regeneron Science Talent Search 2024: two Del Norte seniors named Scholars, one of them among the 40 finalists with a study of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant severity
- Del Norte entries in the 2025 San Diego science-fair senior first awards under Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
What's missing
- No biotechnology or synthetic-biology course in the catalog
- No wet-lab, gene-editing or biomanufacturing record found
Curriculum
- Computer Science & Software Engineering 1–2, AP Computer Science Principles, Data Structures 1, AP Computer Science A and Data Structures 2, in sequence
- Data Structures 2 is the capstone of the Del Norte Computer Science Pathway, with articulated college credit
Evidence seen
- Course descriptions and prerequisites in the 2026–27 catalog
- Both AP courses on the school’s AP page for 2026–27
- Del Norte entries in the 2025 San Diego science-fair senior first awards under Computer Science and Systems Software
What's missing
- No AP Computer Science exam results found
- No computer science club or team record found
Curriculum
- Honors Principles of Biomedical Sciences (Grades 9–10), Honors Human Body Systems (Grades 10–12) and Honors Medical Interventions (Grades 11–12), in sequence
- Introduction to Medical Careers 102, a dual-enrollment course with CSU San Marcos (Grades 10–12)
Evidence seen
- A White Coat Ceremony recognising students who have completed the pathway courses, with white coats supplied in 2023 by ROSALIND
- Del Norte entries in the 2025 San Diego science-fair senior first awards under Biomedical/Health Sciences and Biomedical Engineering
What's missing
- No device-design or biomedical-engineering course; the pathway is biomedical science
- No clinical or hospital placement found
Creativity cannot be graded the way a course can. It can only be evidenced through what students made.
| Criterion | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Art + technology | ||||
| Design | ||||
| Architecture | ||||
| Engineering design | ||||
| Media / digital production | ||||
| Maker learning | ||||
| Interdisciplinary projects |
One strand runs for three years or more. 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 are equally dense, at 1 of 7 criteria.
The record — 1 artefact
Students on Team 3749, Del Norte’s FIRST Robotics Competition team, design and build a robot each season to a published game. The team reached the FIRST Championship in 2023 and won the Excellence in Engineering Award at the 2024 San Diego Regional.
FIRST event records, 2023 to 2026 · the team’s 2023 fundraising appeal
Nothing found for
No student work was found evidencing these. For a school this well documented, an unrecorded programme is unlikely to be a large one.
What a family should ask about directly
- No cybersecurity course is in the 2026–27 catalog. The national-champion CyberAegis teams are a coached programme whose link to the school day is not published, and the most recent result found is from 2024. Ask whether any student can join, how, and whether the teams are running this year.
- Batteries & Energy Storage has no course, club or output record at all — treat it as absent, not just thin. Clean energy and aerospace reach exposure only, through AP Environmental Science, Marine Science and Physics of the Universe.
- AI and data science rest on AP Statistics and the computer science sequence; no AI, machine-learning or data-science course is in the catalog. Ask whether the Data Structures courses cover data analysis, and whether anything is planned.
- The school’s FAQ says honors courses are offered in English only and that honors grades are not weighted, while the 2026–27 catalog lists honors engineering and biomedical courses weighted at 5.0. The catalog is the newer document; ask counseling which applies.
- The school-wide ratio is about 24 students to each teacher (a federal figure for 2024–25, as republished by a third party). Ask for typical section sizes in the laboratory sciences and the computer science sequence.
- The path dots show how far each field reaches across Grades 9–12; the grade in which each course is taken follows the catalog’s grade ranges.
| Domain | Evidence class | Key sources |
|---|---|---|
| AI & Data | Verified | 2026–27 course catalog (AP Statistics); no AI or data-science course, club or project named anywhere |
| Cybersecurity | Corroborated · Officially recorded | District news article and the CyberPatriot results published by the Air & Space Forces Association; the CyberAegis results page; no cybersecurity course in the catalog |
| Robotics | Verified · Officially recorded | 2026–27 catalog (Robotics 1–2, the Project Lead the Way courses); FIRST event records for Team 3749, 2023 to 2026 |
| Clean Energy | Verified | 2026–27 catalog (AP Environmental Science, Marine Science); no energy course, club or project found |
| Biotechnology | Verified · Corroborated | Catalog (AP Biology); Regeneron Science Talent Search 2024 announcements; San Diego science-fair award list |
| Computer Science | Verified | 2026–27 catalog (sequence and prerequisites); the school’s AP page; San Diego science-fair award list |
| Biomedical Engineering | Verified · Corroborated | Catalog (honors biomedical sequence); district article on the White Coat Ceremony (2023); the Dual Enrollment page; San Diego science-fair award list |
| Earth & Geospatial | Verified | Catalog (Marine Science, AP Environmental Science, Earth-and-space content in core science); San Diego science-fair award list; no geospatial course found |
| Aerospace | Verified | Catalog (Physics of the Universe spans astronomy); nothing else found |
| Advanced Manufacturing | Verified | Catalog (Introduction to Engineering Design, industrial design); no manufacturing course found |
| Batteries & Energy Storage | Unsubstantiated | No coursework, club or competition record found |
Academics
All of our AP courses have been certified and audited by the College Board.
We are one of two high schools in the Poway Unified School District on the trimester system, and each of our classes meets for 70 minutes every day. Our 2026–2027 course catalog, our AP list and our dual-enrollment partnership with Palomar College and CSU San Marcos are published on our school site.
High School
Our students can take as many as 15 classes each year, from Advanced Placement and honors courses to career technical pathways, with dual-enrollment courses open to Grades 10–12.
- 22 Advanced Placement courses
- Del Norte Computer Science Pathway, from Computer Science & Software Engineering to Data Structures 2
- Project Lead the Way engineering courses and Robotics 1–2
- Biomedical Pathway: Principles of Biomedical Sciences, Human Body Systems and Medical Interventions
- 3D Computer Animation, Art of Game Design and Digital Media Productions
AP courses offered
Ask about academics
Calendar
Go Nighthawks!
The dates below are the ones on our school site and in the Poway Unified calendar today. Ask below if you need us to confirm a date before you plan around it.
October
November
Ask about the calendar
Our Story
We call it Home Court Advantage.
The dream for Del Norte has always been to create a school environment where everyone belongs, where everyone is valued, supported, and safe, and where everyone contributes. We opened in 2009–2010 with freshman and sophomore classes, adding a class each year until all grades, 9–12, were offered in 2011–2012. We are the fifth and last comprehensive high school to be opened in the Poway Unified School District, in the communities of 4S Ranch and Del Sur.
Leadership
Ty Eveleth
Leads Del Norte High School.
Jennifer Cook
Supports students with last names A–G.
Jessica Turner
Supports students with last names H–O.
Valerie White
Supports students with last names P–Z.
We have earned a six-year Clear WASC Accreditation · We have been recognized as a CA Distinguished School · Our facility has 12 science labs, 5 art labs, 11 vocational education classrooms and a performing arts center.
Ask about our story
For You
Schools we’ve independently assessed and think are worth comparing against this one. View all schools
Del Norte High School hasn’t added its side of this page.
The independent STEM assessment is built from public sources and runs regardless. The school’s own pages — academics, calendar and story — are still empty.
Looking for a school?
There’s nothing here for you yet. The schools we’ve independently assessed and think are worth comparing against this one are under For You.
Are you from Del Norte High School?
This review is already live, and the assessment publishes from public sources whether or not you take part. Claiming it is how your own account appears beside ours.
Free, and no account needed — we follow up with the contact details you leave.