Escondido Charter High School (colloquially referred to as Charter and ECHS) is an independent, co-educational, college preparatory day school in Escondido, California, for grades 9âÂÂ12. The school opened in 1996 with only 30 students. Since then, the student population has grown to almost 400 in the traditional preparatory program, with over 500 students attending the independent learning program. A Charter education is grounded in a classical "back to basics learning," and the importance of pupil-faculty intellectual discourse. Most classes maintain an average size of 20 students per class.
Students must complete and pass the California High School Exit Exam, in addition to a final senior thesis that must be sufficiently defended in front of a committee for review.