Desert Mirage High

As a sizable senior high in Thermal, California, Desert Mirage High instructs 1,875 students from grades 9 through 12, run under Coachella Valley Unified. That puts it 124% above the typical public school in California, which averages around 838 students.

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

On the student-mix side, Desert Mirage High logs that nearly all students (99%) are Hispanic. By comparison, Riverside County as a whole is about 51% Hispanic, so the school skews meaningfully more Hispanic than its surroundings.

Looking at the economic backdrop, The school reports having 85 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 22.2:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 18.2:1, putting Desert Mirage High higher than the state norm the norm. Around 97% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. That share is above Riverside County's rate of about 74%.

With demographic context factored in, Desert Mirage High performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 21.5%, the actual is 24.5%, a residual of +3.0 points.

In the surrounding community, ACS estimates for Riverside County put the typical household earns roughly $93,074 per year, 26% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 8%. In all, Riverside County runs 543 public schools (combined enrollment of about 424,872 students), of which Desert Mirage High is one.

Las Palmitas Elementary is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.0 miles from this campus. 6 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Desert Mirage High at 1st of 8; the average score across the group is 18.2%.

Desert Mirage High operates from a small-town location.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Desert Mirage High has shrank 8%, going from 2,030 students in 2018 to 1,875 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio narrowed from 25.3:1 in 2018 to 22.2:1 today.

On the community side, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.