Cahuilla Desert Academy Junior High

As a mid-tier middle-grades school in Coachella, California, Cahuilla Desert Academy Junior High teaches 668 students from grades 7 through 8, overseen by Coachella Valley Unified.

Coachella Valley Unified runs 21 schools in total, collectively educating 15,817 students. Cahuilla Desert Academy Junior High is one of those campuses.

Looking at the student body, Cahuilla Desert Academy Junior High lists that nearly all students (99%) are Hispanic. The wider county runs roughly 51% Hispanic, putting the school's mix noticeably more Hispanic than the area baseline.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Cahuilla Desert Academy Junior High logs 33 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 20.1:1. The state averages about 20.7:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. Roughly 84% of students at Cahuilla Desert Academy Junior High qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. By comparison, Riverside County runs at roughly 74%, so the school's eligibility rate is higher than the surrounding baseline.

With demographic context factored in, Cahuilla Desert Academy Junior High performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 29.6%, the actual is 24.9%, a residual of -4.7 points.

Around the school, the surrounding county (Riverside County) records that median household earnings sit near $93,074, 26% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and roughly 8% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Cahuilla Desert Academy Junior High is one of 543 public schools in Riverside County (combined enrollment of about 424,872 students).

Nearest neighbor: Imagine Schools Riverside County, around 1.2 miles off. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Cahuilla Desert Academy Junior High comes 6th of 7 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 29.9%.

The school occupies a small-town site.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Cahuilla Desert Academy Junior High has fell 31%, going from 966 students in 2018 to 668 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio tightened from 22.6:1 in 2018 to 20.1:1 today.

On this page, members of the Cahuilla Desert Academy Junior High community share and discuss sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.