El Dorado shines because of its Golden Hawks. Our school is more than just a successful academic institution. It’s a community where students, staff, and parents alike feel empowered, nurtured, and valued. It’s a school where a teacher cannot walk across campus with her hands full without crossing paths with students who offer their help. It’s a place where students are not required to choose between academics, arts, and athletics, but are instead encouraged to pursue excellence in all areas of interest. El Dorado is a school with a proud tradition that is currently in transition to meet heightened expectations for curriculum and instruction and a changing population with changing needs. We are committed to navigating that transition in a manner that honors our history but simultaneously commits to positive improvement by asking year in and year out who our students are, what they need, and how we can better serve them.
Our school presently serves 2025 students drawn primarily from middle- to upper-middle-class residential housing. In the 2020 annual survey, parent and student survey data indicates that we are effectively meeting the needs of our students. 86% of parents agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, “My teachers are invested in my personal success.” Nearly 86% agreed or strongly agreed that, “El Dorado is preparing their student for the next level." Almost three-quarters of our students are involved in demanding and highly successful extracurricular activities and academic pursuits. Those activities include: sports teams that have won 31 CIF and over 220 League championships, academic competition electives that routinely score in the top of the county, national champion cheer and dance teams, Digital Media Arts productions that earn acclaim at community film festivals, and a Marching Band that has appeared in the Rose Parade more often than any other school in Southern California.
El Dorado High School offers myriad opportunities to promote community and parent involvement in academic and extracurricular activities. Local post-secondary schools and community organizations provide partnerships, equipment, and internship and job-shadowing opportunities. Parents are essential to our students’ success and provide valuable direction and volunteer support. Many are involved in PTSA, Back to School Night, AP Showcase, Senior Project Boards, Booster Clubs, and academic competition electives. They frequent after-school activities, chaperone ASB events, and volunteer for school-site committees. Furthermore, they encourage our staff with their Moms in Touch program. Parents validate the effectiveness of these partnerships and the positive impact they have on students through anecdotal and survey data. Nearly 86% of parents agreed or strongly agreed that, “My son/daughter has full access to the educational programs.”
The El Dorado staff is a living testament to our history of excellence, our proud traditions, and our sense of community. Seventeen of our 86 teachers are alumni, as are our activities director, and one of our counselors. The longevity of our staff and faculty as a whole provides an institutional memory to sustain the culture and traditions that distinguish us.
Our active commitment to serve our students with excellence and distinction is demonstrated through our Student Learning Outcomes, our Action Plan theme of “We CAN Do It!” and the extensive collection of student support programs. In keeping with our mascot, El Dorado expects all of our students to be HAWKS – Honorable Advocates who are Well-Rounded, Knowledge-Seeking, and Scholars. Our action plan encompasses efforts to Connect with our students, Analyze and act upon data, and help students Navigate text as we incorporate Common Core standards. At El Dorado, we strive to meet our students where they are and inspire them to continue to grow. We do so by continuing to improve long-standing programs such as AP/Honors, SERVE (targeting socially and academically at-risk students), Senior Projects, PAL (Peer Assistance Leadership), ROP, athletics, activities, and our nationally acclaimed performing arts electives. We also have adopted new programs such as Link Crew, AVID, Digital Media Arts Academy, SOAR (a series of targeted intervention courses), and a co-teaching model to better serve Special Education students.
The success of the above measures is demonstrated through a series of statistics:
- 81% of our courses meet A-G requirements, compared to 74% statewide
- Our overall College Opportunity Ratio of 100:84:43 (of 100 freshmen, 84 graduated four years later and 43 met A-G requirements) is substantially higher than the statewide COR (100:67:26)
- We offer 22 AP courses and 17 Honors courses
- We increased our AP course enrollment and continued our high pass rate leading us to be recognized by the College Board with the AP Achievement Award
- Our current overall AP pass rate is 86%, compared to a statewide average of 64.5% and a global average of 61%
- We celebrate a 96% graduation rate among our seniors
- In 2006, we were recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School
What distinguishes El Dorado is that the above achievements were earned by students while they simultaneously engaged in a rich extracurricular experience. El Dorado is profoundly unique in that our students leave us as prepared and successful adults who engage in their communities and achieve even greater accolades in their collegiate and career endeavors.