Glendale High School: Full Guide

Location: Glendale, CA

Are you a student or parent at Glendale High School? Want to understand how to get the most out of high school?

We've written the best guide to Glendale High available. Here we'll cover:

Breakdowns of student ethnicity, gender, and family income
How safe Glendale High is to attend
SAT/ACT/AP scores earned by Glendale High students
Which AP/IB classes you can take at Glendale High
Every sports team you can join at Glendale High

Let's get started!

Basic Information

Glendale High School is a public school, supporting grades 9 to 12 . It's located in Glendale, CA in Los Angeles County.

Based on its location, Glendale High is classified as a school in a midsized city. Here's the location on a map:

Contact Information

Mailing address:

Glendale High School
1440 E. Brd.way
Glendale, CA 91205-1503

Phone number: 8182423161

Glendale High School homepage: http://www.glendalehigh.com/

Principal: Monica Makewicz
Email the principal: [email protected]

Student Demographics

Student Enrollment

The total enrollment at Glendale High School is 2689 students, making it a very large high school, in the top 10% of all California high schools by size.

Wow! Attending Glendale High might feel like attending a college. You'll be surrounded by a large group of students (over 500 per class) and have more options for activities and clubs to join, which can be exciting.

On the other hand, you may also find that resources like counseling are spread thin across so many students. Make sure that you can get enough teacher and counselor attention to succeed at Glendale High, which may require being proactive.

Growth in Student Body Size

Is Glendale High School growing or shrinking? This will help you see trends in where the school is headed.

From our calculations, the enrollment at Glendale High has decreased over the past few years. We calculate this by comparing enrollment in grades 9 to 12.

	Male Students	Female Students	All Students
9^th grade	320	299	619
10^th grade	359	352	711
11^th grade	355	350	705
12^th grade	330	324	654

As you can see in the table above, the senior class is 35 students larger than the freshman class. This suggests that Glendale High is shrinking in size and taking on fewer students.

There are a few reasons this can happen. The population of Glendale could be decreasing, thus sending fewer students into Glendale High. Alternatively, other schools (like charter or private schools) might be appearing, drawing students away.

Gender Split

Are there more boys or girls at Glendale High School?

From our statistics, Glendale High has a 51:49 split between male and female students in the high school grades.

Glendale High has a balanced male-female ratio that's largely representative of the general population in Los Angeles County. Since the student body is roughly half and half, it should feel like there are equal numbers of boys and girls in your classes.

This usually means that Glendale High doesn't strongly select for either males or females, unlike other schools that have a large majority of males or females.

Ethnicity Breakdown

What's the racial diversity at Glendale High School? Does one ethnicity make up most of the student body, or is it fairly balanced?

From our statistics, Glendale High has a diverse student body. No single ethnicity composes more than 50% of all students, which means you'll be surrounded by a diverse set of students in class. Only a third of California schools show this much diversity.

The most common ethnicity at Glendale High is white. In California, white students make up 26.3% of all California students, and are the second most common ethnicity after Hispanic students.

	Percentage	Number
American Indian/Alaska Native	0.0%	2
Asian	15.3%	413
Hispanic	35.7%	961
Black	1.6%	44
White	46.4%	1249
Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander	0.1%	3
Two or more races	0.6%	17

High schools usually reflect the population in the surrounding area, so the ethnicities of students likely resembles those of Glendale. If you'd like to see how other nearby schools look in diversity, just google "[name of school] prepscholar" to find our guide to that specific school.

Income Level of Glendale High Families

What are the family incomes of students at Glendale High School? To determine this, we look at the number of students who qualify for free or reduced lunches, a classification by the US federal government.

To qualify for a reduced price meal, family income needs to be below 185% of the federal poverty guidelines. For a family of 4, this means an income of around $45,000 or below.

To qualify for a free meal, family income needs to be below 130% of the federal poverty guidelines. For a family of 4, this means an income of around $32,000 or below.

The lower the percentage of students who qualify for free or reduced price meals, the higher the income levels are likely to be.

At Glendale High, 11.0% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 54.5% qualify for free lunches.

This means Glendale High has a moderate percentage of students at or near poverty. About half of all schools in California show this level of poverty or greater. The income level of families in Glendale is likely to be relatively low.

	Number	Percent
Reduced-price lunches	297	11.0%
Free lunches	1468	54.5%
Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches	924	34.3%

As with ethnicity, this likely reflects the surrounding community in Glendale and doesn't speak much about the school itself.

Glendale High is in the middle 50% of schools by income level. Generally, higher income level schools are better-funded and have a higher quality range of classes and activities. Glendale High is likely in the middle of the pack in this regard and will give you a good set of options to try.

If you have any interests that Glendale High doesn't cover, look to your local community for activities, or to the Internet for self-study AP classes.

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School Safety

How safe is Glendale High School to attend? Can you expect a lot of conflict as a student here?

To study this, we look at disciplinary data for two types of incidents at Glendale High: referrals to law enforcement (when incidents are reported to police), and arrests.

These are the most serious disciplinary actions available to school administration and are more severe than suspensions or expulsions. Suspensions are often discretionary and can be given just for being disruptive in class. In contrast, law enforcement referrals and arrests often indicate incidents that put the safety of other Glendale High students at risk.

In the school year of 2011-2012, there were 65 referrals to law enforcement (56 male, 9 female), and 7 school-related arrests (7 males, 0 females). This is out of a total enrollment of 2839 students.

To put this into perspective, most California schools (59% of them) reported 0 law enforcement referrals and arrests.

This means that 2.5 Glendale High has minor safety issues. For every 100 students, there were just 2.5 law-enforcement related actions, but this is still higher than 75% of California schools.

With this record, is Glendale High School significantly different from other schools in the area? It could be that Glendale High has an especially bad record, or it could be that the local area shows a pattern.

Compare this school with other high schools in the same school district, using the following table:

Glendale Unified School District Safety

School Name	Total Referred	Total Arrests	Enrollment
Verdugo Academy	0	0	99
Crescenta Valley High	83	12	2904
Daily (allan F.) High (continuation)	18	6	213
College View	0	0	78
Herbert Hoover High	0	0	1849
Anderson W. Clark Magnet High	0	0	1157

Academic Performance

Now we get to a major aspect of assessing a high school: academic performance. How good of an education will you get at Glendale High School? Will you be competitive for college? Will you have access to advanced classes?

We've compiled everything we could find about Glendale High's academics here.

Graduation Rate

To start off, an important benchmark of academic achievement is graduation rate. For all students who start high school at Glendale High, the state of California wants as many students to graduate as possible, since a high school diploma can mean a big difference in getting a job.

At Glendale High, 89% (of 716) Glendale High students graduated within four years of starting high school.

Here's how this stacks up to other schools. The California state government has defined 90% as a target rate. The state average is around 80-85%.

Glendale High is in the 67th percentile of all public high schools in California for graduation rate. This is above average. Generally, a graduation rate of above 90% is considered good and well above average, and below 75% is well below average.

Note: This data comes from a few years back, but the trends are likely to stay the same, since schools don't get significantly better or worse within a short period of time.

Standardized Testing

Next, we'll look at another major piece of high school academics: standardized testing performance for Glendale High School students. These are tests that are administered to large populations of students for comparison purposes.

Let’s start by taking a look at the data for nationally administered standardized tests.

SAT Scores

As you probably know, the SAT is a critical test used for college admissions. The higher the score you get, the better your academic performance compared to students nationwide, and the easier it is to get into top colleges.

We did in-depth research and found the average Glendale High School SAT scores.

The average composite SAT score is a 1540 out of 2400, compared to a national average of 1500. Each year, roughly 326 at Glendale High take the SAT.

This is an average SAT score, putting Glendale High School right around the national average. Because the SAT measures academic achievement, this suggests that Glendale High will offer a fairly standard high school education, neither strongly lacking or outperforming.

Note, however, that this is just an average - the top students can still exceed the average significantly. If you can rise far above your school average, you'll have a great shot at entering a strong college.

Here's a breakdown of SAT scores by section:

Average SAT Scores (2013-2014)

Source	Critical Reading	Math	Writing	Composite
Glendale High	500	541	503	1540
California	498	510	496	1504
United States	495	511	484	1490

Note that the SAT has since changed to a 1600 scale, but the trends above for your high school are likely to continue. Just use this guide to convert between the old 2400 scale and the new 1600 scale.

To learn more about SAT percentile rankings, read our guide on what SAT percentiles really mean.

How good is 1540 as an SAT score? Find out with our complete 1540 SAT score guide, including which colleges you can get into with a 1540 or any other SAT score!

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ACT Scores

In California, the ACT is less popular than the SAT. Fewer students take the ACT, and typically these students are more motivated and academically prepared for college. Therefore, it's harder to compare Glendale High School ACT scores with the rest of the country.

At Glendale High, the average ACT composite score was 22, compared to the nationwide average of 20. Each year, roughly 51 out of 2689 total students take the ACT.

This is above average performance, putting Glendale High in the top 50% of California high schools. Since the ACT tests what you learn in school, these ACT scores are a good indication that you'll get an above-average education at Glendale High.

Here are the average English, Math, Reading, and Science scores for Glendale High compared to California and the US:

Average ACT Scores

Source	English	Math	Reading	Science
Glendale High	21	24	21	22
California	21.8	22.8	22.3	21.7
United States	20.3	20.9	21.3	20.8

Scores provided are for the 2013-14 school year.

Find out more about percentile rankings and the ACT in this article.

Every individual is different. What counts as a good ACT score for you? Learn more with this article!

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Advanced Placement (AP)

Advanced Placement (AP) classes are college-level courses that are an additional academic challenge may give Glendale High School students credit for college.

Here's what we're looking for: high average AP test scores as well as high AP passing rates.

AP Scores

Every year, roughly 486 students in grades 9-12 at Glendale High take 852 AP exams. It's important to understand how students score on the AP - earning a 3, 4, or 5 on the AP test means passing the test and often earning college credit.

The average score of all AP exams taken at Glendale High is 2.7 out of 5.

This score puts Glendale High at average performance. For AP tests, the passing score is considered a 3, and the number of students who pass and don't pass are roughly even. This performance places Glendale High School in the top 50% of schools for AP tests.

It's great that Glendale High offers an AP program so you have the opportunity to take courses at a college level. Even though roughly half of all AP students here don't get a passing grade, half do - so with motivated studying throughout the year, you'll be able to beat the average.

We have specific data on how many students got a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 (out of 5) on AP exams in the chart below:

AP Test-Taking Statistics

Another way to gauge the quality of a school's AP program is to see how many AP students actually took AP exams at Glendale High School. If a lot of students enroll in AP courses but don't actually take the AP tests, it can be a sign that students don't feel adequately prepared to take the test, or the school isn't encouraging students to take the exams enough.

At Glendale High, there is a total enrollment of 933 in AP courses (a student taking more than one AP course counts more than once).

Of AP-taking students, 336 took AP tests for ALL AP courses. 46 students took AP tests for SOME AP Courses, and 106 took AP courses but took NO tests.

This is good test participation. Most AP students at Glendale High School take the AP test for every one of their AP courses, outnumbering the students who take some or no AP exams. This is a good sign that students feel confident enough to take tests for all AP courses available to them, which reflects well on the teachers and course material. Glendale High can continue to improve by reducing the number of students who take AP exams for some or none of their courses, but it's in a good state.

Note: The most recent data we have available is from 2012, so the statistics may have changed since then. Most likely, however, the trends are likely to continue - above average schools are likely to stay above average, and below average schools are likely to stay below average.

AP Passing Rates

For AP students at Glendale High School who take the exam, it's important to know how they do. Here we have specific data on how many students got a passing grade (a 3 or above) on all, some, or none of the AP exams that they took.

Of all AP test takers, 135 students passed every AP test they took, which is a fantastic job. 105 students passed some but not all AP exams, and 132 students didn't pass ANY AP exam they took.

This is good performance. The majority of students pass SOME or ALL of the AP tests. Only a minority of students at Glendale High School fail all the AP exams they take.

Overall, this points to a fairly strong AP program at Glendale High. Most students are able to pass at least one of the AP tests they take, which means the teaching is likely of acceptable quality, and the students are motivated to do well. However, the program isn't strong across the board. Some teachers or courses may be better than others, and students at Glendale High may be stronger at some subjects and weaker in others.

If you attend Glendale High, this means you'll have a good starting point to work from - but if you want to pass all the AP tests you take, you'll need to work hard and use good study strategies.

To find out the passing rates for specific AP courses at Glendale High School, you'll have to talk to your guidance counselor (who can then help you find that information). For instance, one AP Calculus teacher may have an above-90% passing rate, while another might only have a 50% passing rate. If you can, you'll want to take the class with the teacher who has more students get a 3 or above on the AP exam.

Find out more about the average score for each AP subject here.

State Tests

As of 2014, eleventh graders attending Glendale High School must take standardized tests in English/Language Arts and Math as part of the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP). These align with the new Common Core standards and are called the "Smarter Balanced" tests.

If Glendale High students meet or exceed state standards, they're academically prepared to graduate high school and go to college. Specifically, we care about the percentage of students who meet or exceed state standards. The larger this number, the higher the preparation of students at Glendale High.

English/Language Arts

At Glendale High School, 59% of students meet or exceed state standards in English/Language Arts.

This is considered above average and puts Glendale High in the top 50% of all high schools in California for English/Language Arts. Around half of Glendale High students pass state standards, and around half do not.

This specific percentage isn't much cause for concern - because the standards have gotten harder with the Common Core, the pass rate at Glendale High will likely rise over time. But it still reflects Glendale High's roughly average ranking among California high schools.

English/Language Arts Test Results (2015)

Read more about what’s measured in each ELA area score here.

Math

The other major test taken for state assessments is Math. Across the state, Math performance is generally lower than English/Language Arts performance, so it's natural for this number to be lower.

At Glendale High School, 33% of students meet or exceed state standards in Math. This is considered well below average and puts Glendale High in the bottom 25% of all high schools in California. The vast majority of Glendale High students don't meet state standards, and only a small percentage pass.

Math Test Results (2015)

Read more about what’s measured in each Math area score, go here.

Academic Offerings

In addition to the standard high school curriculum, many high schools like Glendale High School offer advanced coursework as part of the Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) programs.

Brief Intro to AP/IB

AP and IB courses are designed at the difficulty level of college introductory classes. There are several important benefits to taking advanced coursework at Glendale High. First, taking more advanced classes shows colleges that you're committed to challenging yourself academically, and that you're one of the more advanced students at Glendale High. Taking AP/IB classes also raises your weighted GPA and makes you a stronger college applicant.

Furthermore, many colleges will accept your Glendale High AP/IB coursework as college coursework. In some cases, you'll be able to skip introductory-level classes and move to more advanced classes. In other cases, you'll be able to avoid having to take required courses and might even be able to graduate earlier than the standard 4 years. Often this will require you to pass the AP test, getting a score of 3 or above.

So what advanced courses does Glendale High School offer?

AP Courses

Glendale High School offers AP courses in 22 subjects.

This is a huge number of AP subjects, putting Glendale High School in the top 5% of California schools in AP offerings. You'll be able to choose from the most popular AP courses as well as your pick of broader interests.

The total number of AP subjects is 38, so Glendale High is missing some subjects, but these are likely the least popular subjects, like some foreign languages and the new AP Research and Seminar courses. If there are any AP courses you want to take that aren't being offered at Glendale High, ask your counselor for other options.

Of course, keep in mind that quantity doesn't automatically mean quality - it's important that the courses are taught well by effective teachers. But the strong AP program at Glendale High likely means the classes are of high quality.

The following AP courses were offered at Glendale High during 2015-2016:

Course Title
Biology
Calculus AB
Calculus BC
Chemistry
English Language and Composition
English Literature and Composition
French Language and Culture
Macroeconomics
Music Theory
Physics 1: Algebra-Based
Physics 2: Algebra-Based
Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism
Physics C: Mechanics
Psychology
Spanish Language and Culture
Spanish Literature and Culture
Statistics
Studio Art: 2-D Design
Studio Art: 3-D Design
Studio Art: Drawing
United States Government and Politics
United States History

Sports Teams

Finally, we'll cover which sports teams are available at Glendale High School. Sports are an integral part of many students' high school experiences. The more sports that are available, and the more levels supported (Frosh, JV, Varsity), the more likely you'll be able to participate in a sport at Glendale High.

By the way, the Glendale High mascot is the Nitros. Go Nitros!

Glendale High School fields 19 teams for girls' sports. This is a high number that puts Glendale High in the top 25% of California schools that offer girls' sports. If you're a female, you'll have lots of options of sports and levels to try out for.

And now for the boys: Glendale High School fields 22 teams for boys' sports. This puts Glendale High in the top 25% of California schools that offer boys' sports. Boys will have a large pick of sports to try out for.

Boys Teams	Girls Teams
Lacrosse Var JV Fr	Lacrosse Var JV Fr
Basketball Var JV Fr	Basketball Var JV Fr
Golf Var JV Fr
Tennis Var JV Fr	Tennis Var JV Fr
Football Var JV Fr
Wrestling Var JV Fr
Volleyball Var JV Fr	Volleyball Var JV Fr
Baseball Var JV Fr
	Softball Var JV Fr
Waterpolo Var JV Fr	Waterpolo Var JV Fr
Trackfield Var JV Fr	Trackfield Var JV Fr
Crosscountry Var JV Fr	Crosscountry Var JV Fr
Soccer Var JV Fr	Soccer Var JV Fr
	Fieldhockey Var JV Fr

What’s Next?

Want to get more useful information about high school classes and preparing for colleges? Our blog has a ton of articles and advice on topics ranging from coursework and GPA to letters of recommendation, extracurriculars, and much more!

Ready to bulk up your schedule and maximize your college preparedness? Read all about the Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs.

Not quite in high school yet, but eager to get started? We've also got information for younger students interested in advanced learning opportunities, both in and out of school.

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