32nd Street USC Cinematic Arts & Engineering Magnet: Full Guide

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Are you a student or parent at 32nd Street USC Cinematic Arts & Engineering Magnet? Want to understand how to get the most out of high school?

We've written the best guide to USC CAE available. Here we'll cover:

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

Let's get started!

Basic Information

32nd Street USC Cinematic Arts & Engineering Magnet is a public school, supporting grades 0 to 12 . It's located in Los Angeles, CA in Los Angeles County.

Based on its location, USC CAE is classified as a school in a large city. Here's the location on a map:

Contact Information

Mailing address:

32nd Street USC Cinematic Arts & Engineering Magnet
822 W. 32nd St.
Los Angeles, CA 90007-3601

Phone number: 2137480126

32nd Street USC Cinematic Arts & Engineering Magnet homepage: https://32ndstreet-uscmagnet.schoolloop.com/

Principal: Ezequiel Gonzalez
Email the principal: [email protected]

Student Demographics

Student Enrollment

The total enrollment at 32nd Street USC Cinematic Arts & Engineering Magnet is 1099 students, making it a somewhat large high school, in the top half of all California high schools by size.

As a mid-sized high school, USC CAE strikes the balance between size and comfort. There will be enough students to provide a diversity of experiences, like clubs and sports, for you to join. But it'll be small enough that you'll likely get to know most people in your class.

Growth in Student Body Size

Is 32nd Street USC Cinematic Arts & Engineering Magnet growing or shrinking? This will help you see trends in where the school is headed.

From our calculations, the enrollment at USC CAE has steadily increased over the past few years. We calculate this by comparing enrollment in grades 9 to 12.

	Male Students	Female Students	All Students
9th grade	53	42	95
10th grade	43	41	84
11th grade	35	38	73
12th grade	29	39	68

As you can see in the table above, the freshman class is 27 students larger than the senior class. This suggests that the school is growing in size and taking on more students.

There are a few reasons this could be happening. The city of Los Angeles could be growing in population, thus sending more students into USC CAE. Alternatively, USC CAE could be relaxing its student policies and taking in more students.

Gender Split

Are there more boys or girls at 32nd Street USC Cinematic Arts & Engineering Magnet?

From our statistics, USC CAE has a 50:50 split between male and female students in the high school grades.

USC CAE 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 USC CAE 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 32nd Street USC Cinematic Arts & Engineering Magnet? Does one ethnicity make up most of the student body, or is it fairly balanced?

From our statistics, USC CAE has a homogenous student body, with the overwhelming majority of students identifying as one ethnicity. Only a third of California schools show as little diversity as USC CAE does. When attending class, most students will be of the same ethnicity, with some variation.

The majority of students at USC CAE are Hispanic. In California, Hispanic students make up the majority of all students at 51.5%, and are thus the most common ethnicity. Predominantly Hispanic schools are the most common type of homogenous school, and USC CAE fits within this category.

	Percentage	Number
American Indian/Alaska Native	1.3%	15
Asian	5.6%	62
Hispanic	71.7%	789
Black	15.5%	171
White	5.6%	62
Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander	0.0%	0
Two or more races	0.0%	0

High schools usually reflect the population in the surrounding area, so the ethnicities of students likely resembles those of Los Angeles. 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 USC CAE Families

What are the family incomes of students at 32nd Street USC Cinematic Arts & Engineering Magnet? 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 USC CAE, 12.6% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 73.6% qualify for free lunches.

This means USC CAE has a high percentage of students at or near poverty. Almost a third of all schools in California show this level of poverty, and by National Center for Education Statistics standards, USC CAE can be classified as a high poverty school. The income level of families in Los Angeles is thus likely to be low.

	Number	Percent
Reduced-price lunches	139	12.6%
Free lunches	809	73.6%
Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches	151	13.7%

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

Unfortunately, schools in areas of lower income levels are likely to be more poorly funded. As a result, they might feature less advanced coursework like AP/IB classes, and you may not have a full range of sports and extracurriculars to draw from. Because USC CAE is an especially high poverty-level school, it might not have the resources you need to meet your full potential.

You definitely don't have control over the city, the school, or other families, but you can structure your own learning to be more productive. If you'd like to open yourself to more opportunities, you can look into whether it's possible to transfer to a nearby school with higher income levels.

If not, don't be alarmed - it's possible that USC CAE has all that you need for your ambition. And you can definitely be proactive about learning outside of your school, looking to your community or to the Internet to find more resources.

School Safety

How safe is 32nd Street USC Cinematic Arts & Engineering Magnet 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 USC CAE: 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 USC CAE students at risk.

With this record, is 32nd Street USC Cinematic Arts & Engineering Magnet significantly different from other schools in the area? It could be that USC CAE 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:

Los Angeles Unified School District Safety

School Name	Total Referred	Total Arrests	Enrollment
Frank Lanterman	0	0	222
Youth Opportunities Unlimited	6	0	323
Jane Addams Continuation	0	0	216
William Tell Aggeler Opportunity High	0	0	65
John R. Wooden High	0	0	144
Angel's Gate (continuation)	0	0	84

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 32nd Street USC Cinematic Arts & Engineering Magnet? Will you be competitive for college? Will you have access to advanced classes?

We've compiled everything we could find about USC CAE's academics here.

Standardized Testing

Next, we'll look at another major piece of high school academics: standardized testing performance for 32nd Street USC Cinematic Arts & Engineering Magnet 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 32nd Street USC Cinematic Arts & Engineering Magnet SAT scores.

Here's a breakdown of SAT scores by section:

Average SAT Scores (2013-2014)

Source	Critical Reading	Math	Writing	Composite
USC CAE	442	423	450	1310
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 1310 as an SAT score? Find out with our complete 1310 SAT score guide, including which colleges you can get into with a 1310 or any other SAT score!

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 32nd Street USC Cinematic Arts & Engineering Magnet ACT scores with the rest of the country.

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

Average ACT Scores

Source	English	Math	Reading	Science
USC CAE	17	18	17	18
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!

Advanced Placement (AP)

Advanced Placement (AP) classes are college-level courses that are an additional academic challenge may give 32nd Street USC Cinematic Arts & Engineering Magnet 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 61 students in grades 9-12 at USC CAE take 130 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.

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 32nd Street USC Cinematic Arts & Engineering Magnet. 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.

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 32nd Street USC Cinematic Arts & Engineering Magnet 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.