Independence High

Independence High is a high-enrollment high school in San Jose, California, run under East Side Union High. The school serves 2,289 students in grades 9 through 12. That puts it 173% above the typical public school in California, which averages around 838 students.

East Side Union High comprises 16 schools with combined enrollment of 19,736 students; Independence High is among them.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Independence High logs that the largest single group is Asian at 52%, but no single group is in the majority; the rest comes out to 39% Hispanic, 3% White, 3% multiracial. By comparison, Santa Clara County as a whole is about 41% Asian, so the school skews meaningfully more Asian than its surroundings.

On the resource side, On paper, Independence High has 103 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 22.2:1. That figure is higher than the state norm's 18.2:1 average. Roughly 47% of students at Independence High qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. By comparison, Santa Clara County runs at roughly 37%, so the school's eligibility rate is somewhat above the surrounding baseline.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Independence High tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 51.5% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 46.5%.

Across the wider county, the surrounding county (Santa Clara County) shows that median household earnings sit near $164,281, about 57% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 4%. Independence High is one of 412 public schools in Santa Clara County (combined enrollment of about 230,059 students).

Nearest neighbor: KIPP San Jose Collegiate, around 0.1 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Independence High. Among the 4 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Independence High ranks 1st on composite proficiency, higher than the local average of 24.5%.

The school occupies a downtown site.

Five-year trend. Independence High's enrollment has fell 21% since 2018, when it stood at 2,914 (now 2,289). The Asian share of enrollment edged down from 61% to 52% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio pulled in from 23.5:1 in 2018 to 22.2:1 today.

On the community side, members of the Independence High community share and discuss open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.