Duarte High School: Full Guide

Location: Duarte, CA

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

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

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

Let's get started!

Basic Information

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

Based on its location, Duarte High is classified as a school in a large suburb. Here's the location on a map:

Contact Information

Mailing address:

Duarte High School
1620 Hntngtn Dr.
Duarte, CA 91010-2505

Phone number: 6265995700

Duarte High School homepage: http://www.duarteusd.org/dhs

Principal: Mark Sims
Email the principal: [email protected]

Student Demographics

Student Enrollment

The total enrollment at Duarte High School 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, Duarte High 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 Duarte High School growing or shrinking? This will help you see trends in where the school is headed.

From our calculations, the enrollment at Duarte High has increased 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	132	142	274
10^th grade	125	138	263
11^th grade	130	159	289
12^th grade	136	137	273

As you can see in the table above, the freshman class is 1 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 Duarte could be growing in population, thus sending more students into Duarte High. Alternatively, Duarte High could be relaxing its student policies and taking in more students.

Gender Split

Are there more boys or girls at Duarte High School?

From our statistics, Duarte High has a 48:52 split between male and female students in the high school grades.

Duarte 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 Duarte 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 Duarte High School? Does one ethnicity make up most of the student body, or is it fairly balanced?

From our statistics, Duarte High 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 Duarte High does. When attending class, most students will be of the same ethnicity, with some variation.

The majority of students at Duarte High 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 Duarte High fits within this category.

	Percentage	Number
American Indian/Alaska Native	0.1%	2
Asian	8.8%	97
Hispanic	72.8%	801
Black	7.0%	78
White	9.1%	101
Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander	0.0%	0
Two or more races	1.8%	20

High schools usually reflect the population in the surrounding area, so the ethnicities of students likely resembles those of Duarte. 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 Duarte High Families

What are the family incomes of students at Duarte 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 Duarte High, 15.1% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 56.1% qualify for free lunches.

This means Duarte 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 Duarte is likely to be relatively low.

	Number	Percent
Reduced-price lunches	167	15.1%
Free lunches	617	56.1%
Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches	315	28.6%

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

Duarte 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. Duarte 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 Duarte 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 Duarte 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 Duarte 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 Duarte High students at risk.

In the school year of 2011-2012, there were 2 referrals to law enforcement (2 male, 0 female), and 0 school-related arrests. This is out of a total enrollment of 1216 students.

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

This means that 0.1 Duarte High is a safe school. For every 100 students, there is much fewer than 1 law-enforcement related action. It's not a perfect record, but it happens so infrequently that it might have just been a few bad apples.

With this record, is Duarte High School significantly different from other schools in the area? It could be that Duarte 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:

Duarte Unified School District Safety

School Name	Total Referred	Total Arrests	Enrollment
Mt. Olive Innovation And Technology High	2	0	72
Opportunities For Learning - Duarte	0	0	0

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 Duarte High School? Will you be competitive for college? Will you have access to advanced classes?

We've compiled everything we could find about Duarte 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 Duarte 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 Duarte High, 97% (of 229) Duarte 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%.

Duarte High is in the 96th percentile of all public high schools in California for graduation rate. This is extremely good. 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 Duarte 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 Duarte High School SAT scores.

The average composite SAT score is a 1360 out of 2400, compared to a national average of 1500. Each year, roughly 181 at Duarte High take the SAT.

This is a below-average SAT score, putting Duarte High School in the bottom 50% of all California schools. Only 23% of students here score the national average or higher. Because the SAT measures academic achievement, this suggests that Duarte High may offer a somewhat lacking high school education, compared to schools with higher SAT averages.

Note, however, that an average is just an average - top performers will still be able to impress. If you work hard and get an SAT score well above Duarte High's average, you'll have a great shot at entering a good college.

Here's a breakdown of SAT scores by section:

Average SAT Scores (2013-2014)

Source	Critical Reading	Math	Writing	Composite
Duarte High	450	462	453	1360
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 1360 as an SAT score? Find out with our complete 1360 SAT score guide, including which colleges you can get into with a 1360 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 Duarte High School ACT scores with the rest of the country.

At Duarte High, the average ACT composite score was 21, compared to the nationwide average of 20. Each year, roughly 26 out of 1099 total students take the ACT.

This is above average performance, putting Duarte 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 Duarte High.

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

Average ACT Scores

Source	English	Math	Reading	Science
Duarte High	21	22	21	20
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 Duarte 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 154 students in grades 9-12 at Duarte High take 235 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 Duarte High is 2.0 out of 5.

Compared to schools across California, this score puts Duarte High at below average performance. On AP tests, the passing score is considered a 3, and unfortunately the number of students who don't pass is greater than the number of do. This performance places Duarte High School in the bottom 25 % of schools for AP tests.

This isn't all bad news for you, though. It's still good that Duarte High offers AP classes so you have the opportunity to take courses at a college level. Your school might be new to offering AP courses, and typically teachers get better at preparing students for AP tests over time. Finally, as you'll see below, there are still students who earn a passing grade of 3 or above - and with hard work, you can be one of them.

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 Duarte 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 Duarte High, there is a total enrollment of 204 in AP courses (a student taking more than one AP course counts more than once).

Of AP-taking students, 162 took AP tests for ALL AP courses. 17 students took AP tests for SOME AP Courses, and 4 took AP courses but took NO tests.

This is good test participation. Most AP students at Duarte 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. Duarte 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 Duarte 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, 36 students passed every AP test they took, which is a fantastic job. 24 students passed some but not all AP exams, and 106 students didn't pass ANY AP exam they took.

Unfortunately, this is poor performance compared to other high schools. At Duarte High School, the majority of AP students fail ALL of the AP exams they take. This usually means that they're not adequately prepared for the national AP exam at the end of the year.

This isn't necessarily the school's fault. AP courses may be too advanced for the typical student at Duarte High, and it's still a good thing that AP courses are offered at all. Furthermore, it's possible that a majority of the AP exams taken by students at Duarte High are on the more difficult side.

However, if you're a student at Duarte High, this is a warning that you'll have to go above and beyond the typical student to pass your AP exams. This may entail self-studying, figuring out who the better AP teachers are and trying to get into their classes, and working hard.

To find out the passing rates for specific AP courses at Duarte 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 Duarte 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 Duarte 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 Duarte High.

English/Language Arts

At Duarte High School, 52% of students meet or exceed state standards in English/Language Arts.

This is considered above average and puts Duarte High in the top 50% of all high schools in California for English/Language Arts. Around half of Duarte 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 Duarte High will likely rise over time. But it still reflects Duarte 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 Duarte High School, 16% of students meet or exceed state standards in Math. This is considered well below average and puts Duarte High in the bottom 25% of all high schools in California. The vast majority of Duarte 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 Duarte 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 Duarte 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 Duarte High. Taking AP/IB classes also raises your weighted GPA and makes you a stronger college applicant.

Furthermore, many colleges will accept your Duarte 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 Duarte High School offer?

AP Courses

Duarte High School offers AP courses in 14 subjects.

This is a reasonable number of AP subjects, putting Duarte High School in the top 50% of California schools that offer AP courses. You'll likely have access to some of the most popular math and humanities AP subjects, as well as a few others.

The total number of AP subjects is 38, so Duarte High is missing a large number of subjects, including some popular ones. If there are any AP courses you want to take that aren't being offered at Duarte High, ask your counselor for ideas on how to cover the gap.

Of course, keep in mind that quality matters even more than quantity - even if Duarte High doesn't offer every AP course under the sun, the classes might still be taught very well. You can see student performance in the AP score analysis section above.

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

Course Title
Biology
Calculus AB
Calculus BC
Chemistry
English Language and Composition
English Literature and Composition
Physics 1: Algebra-Based
Physics 2: Algebra-Based
Spanish Language and Culture
Statistics
Studio Art: 2-D Design
United States Government and Politics
United States History
World History

Sports Teams

Finally, we'll cover which sports teams are available at Duarte 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 Duarte High.

By the way, the Duarte High mascot is the Falcons. Go Falcons!

Duarte High School fields 13 teams for girls' sports. This is a sizable number that puts Duarte High in the top 50% of California schools that offer girls' sports. You won't get the full range of sports and levels, but you'll be able to try out for a few options. If you participate in a sport that Duarte High doesn't offer, consider looking for a local non-school team that you can join.

And now for the boys: Duarte High School fields 18 teams for boys' sports. This puts Duarte High in the top 50% of California schools that offer boys' sports. You won't get every sport and level possible here, but you'll have a decent number of options. If you participate in a sport that Duarte High doesn't offer, consider looking for a local non-school team that you can join.

Boys Teams	Girls Teams
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
Trackfield Var JV Fr	Trackfield 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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