Gompers Preparatory Academy: Full Guide

Location: San Diego, CA

Are you a student or parent at Gompers Preparatory Academy? Want to understand how to get the most out of high school?

We've written the best guide to Gompers Preparatory Academy available. Here we'll cover:

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

Let's get started!

Basic Information

Gompers Preparatory Academy is a public school, supporting grades 6 to 12 . It's located in San Diego, CA in San Diego County.

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

Contact Information

Mailing address:

Gompers Preparatory Academy
1005 47th St.
San Diego, CA 92102

Phone number: 6192632171

Gompers Preparatory Academy homepage: http://www.gompersprep.org/

Principal: Vincent Riveroll
Email the principal: [email protected]

Student Demographics

Student Enrollment

The total enrollment at Gompers Preparatory Academy is 1052 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, Gompers Preparatory Academy 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy growing or shrinking? This will help you see trends in where the school is headed.

From our calculations, the enrollment at Gompers Preparatory Academy 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	71	65	136
10^th grade	73	68	141
11^th grade	58	45	103
12^th grade	48	43	91

As you can see in the table above, the freshman class is 45 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 San Diego could be growing in population, thus sending more students into Gompers Preparatory Academy. Alternatively, Gompers Preparatory Academy could be relaxing its student policies and taking in more students.

Gender Split

Are there more boys or girls at Gompers Preparatory Academy?

From our statistics, Gompers Preparatory Academy has a 54:46 split between male and female students in the high school grades.

Gompers Preparatory Academy has a balanced male-female ratio that's largely representative of the general population in San Diego 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy? Does one ethnicity make up most of the student body, or is it fairly balanced?

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

The majority of students at Gompers Preparatory Academy 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy fits within this category.

	Percentage	Number
American Indian/Alaska Native	0.0%	0
Asian	4.1%	44
Hispanic	79.9%	841
Black	11.8%	125
White	0.7%	8
Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander	1.3%	14
Two or more races	1.9%	20

High schools usually reflect the population in the surrounding area, so the ethnicities of students likely resembles those of San Diego. 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy Families

What are the family incomes of students at Gompers Preparatory Academy? 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy, 9.2% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 79.3% qualify for free lunches.

This means Gompers Preparatory Academy 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, Gompers Preparatory Academy can be classified as a high poverty school. The income level of families in San Diego is thus likely to be low.

	Number	Percent
Reduced-price lunches	97	9.2%
Free lunches	835	79.3%
Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches	120	11.4%

As with ethnicity, this likely reflects the surrounding community in San Diego 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy 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.

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School Safety

How safe is Gompers Preparatory Academy 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy: 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy students at risk.

In the school year of 2011-2012, there were 11 referrals to law enforcement (7 male, 4 female), and 11 school-related arrests (7 males, 4 females). This is out of a total enrollment of 942 students.

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

This means that 2.3 Gompers Preparatory Academy has minor safety issues. For every 100 students, there were just 2.3 law-enforcement related actions, but this is still higher than 75% of California schools.

With this record, is Gompers Preparatory Academy significantly different from other schools in the area? It could be that Gompers Preparatory Academy 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:

San Diego Unified School District Safety

School Name	Total Referred	Total Arrests	Enrollment
Scripps Ranch High	25	25	2374
Charter School Of San Diego	4	4	2194
Clairemont High	10	10	1238
Garfield High	2	2	320
Henry High	20	20	2512
Hoover High	37	37	2015

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 Gompers Preparatory Academy? Will you be competitive for college? Will you have access to advanced classes?

We've compiled everything we could find about Gompers Preparatory Academy's academics here.

Standardized Testing

Next, we'll look at another major piece of high school academics: standardized testing performance for Gompers Preparatory Academy 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy SAT scores.

The average composite SAT score is a 1100 out of 2400, compared to a national average of 1500. Each year, roughly 90 at Gompers Preparatory Academy take the SAT.

This is a very low SAT score, putting Gompers Preparatory Academy in the bottom 25% of all California schools, and well below the national average. Only 2% of SAT takers here score above the national average. Unfortunately, this suggests that most students attending Gompers Preparatory Academy are not high-achieving, and may find it difficult to be admitted to a good college.

Note, however, that an average is just an average - you still have the potential to rise above expectations. If you work hard and earn an SAT score well above Gompers Preparatory Academy'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
Gompers Preparatory Academy	362	371	373	1100
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 1100 as an SAT score? Find out with our complete 1100 SAT score guide, including which colleges you can get into with a 1100 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy ACT scores with the rest of the country.

At Gompers Preparatory Academy, the average ACT composite score was 14, compared to the nationwide average of 20. Each year, roughly 59 out of 471 total students take the ACT.

Unfortunately, this is well below average performance, putting Gompers Preparatory Academy in the bottom 25% of high schools in California. Most students who take the ACT here are well below the national average.

Since the ACT tests what you learn in school, this may be a warning sign that the quality of education you'll receive at Gompers Preparatory Academy may be lacking compared to other schools.

Here are the average English, Math, Reading, and Science scores for Gompers Preparatory Academy compared to California and the US:

Average ACT Scores

Source	English	Math	Reading	Science
Gompers Preparatory Academy	12	16	15	15
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 Gompers Preparatory Academy 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 87 students in grades 9-12 at Gompers Preparatory Academy take 157 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy is 1.4 out of 5.

Compared to schools across California, this score puts Gompers Preparatory Academy 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy in the bottom 25 % of schools for AP tests.

This isn't all bad news for you, though. It's still good that Gompers Preparatory Academy 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy. 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy, there is a total enrollment of 202 in AP courses (a student taking more than one AP course counts more than once).

Of AP-taking students, 148 took AP tests for ALL AP courses. 23 students took AP tests for SOME AP Courses, and 25 took AP courses but took NO tests.

This is good test participation. Most AP students at Gompers Preparatory Academy 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. Gompers Preparatory Academy 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy 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, 41 students passed every AP test they took, which is a fantastic job. 26 students passed some but not all AP exams, and 97 students didn't pass ANY AP exam they took.

Unfortunately, this is poor performance compared to other high schools. At Gompers Preparatory Academy, 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy, 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy are on the more difficult side.

However, if you're a student at Gompers Preparatory Academy, 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy, 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy.

English/Language Arts

At Gompers Preparatory Academy, 48% of students meet or exceed state standards in English/Language Arts.

This is considered above average and puts Gompers Preparatory Academy in the top 50% of all high schools in California for English/Language Arts. Around half of Gompers Preparatory Academy 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy will likely rise over time. But it still reflects Gompers Preparatory Academy'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 Gompers Preparatory Academy, 9% of students meet or exceed state standards in Math. This is considered well below average and puts Gompers Preparatory Academy in the bottom 25% of all high schools in California. The vast majority of Gompers Preparatory Academy 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy. 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy. Taking AP/IB classes also raises your weighted GPA and makes you a stronger college applicant.

Furthermore, many colleges will accept your Gompers Preparatory Academy 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy offer?

AP Courses

Gompers Preparatory Academy offers AP courses in 10 subjects.

This is a reasonable number of AP subjects, putting Gompers Preparatory Academy 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy, 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy during 2015-2016:

Course Title
Biology
Calculus AB
Chemistry
English Language and Composition
English Literature and Composition
European History
Spanish Language and Culture
Spanish Literature and Culture
United States Government and Politics
United States History

Sports Teams

Finally, we'll cover which sports teams are available at Gompers Preparatory Academy. 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 Gompers Preparatory Academy.

By the way, the Gompers Preparatory Academy mascot is the Eagles. Go Eagles!

Gompers Preparatory Academy fields 11 teams for girls' sports. This is a relatively number that puts Gompers Preparatory Academy in the bottom 50% of California schools that offer girls' sports. This is understandable - sports teams are expensive to support, and many schools would rather put those resources elsewhere. If you participate in a sport that Gompers Preparatory Academy doesn't offer, consider joining a local non-school team to get practice and compete.

And now for the boys: Gompers Preparatory Academy fields 12 teams for boys' sports. This relatively number puts Gompers Preparatory Academy in the bottom 50% of California schools that offer boys' sports. Sports teams are expensive to support, and Gompers Preparatory Academy may not be able to offer the full range of options. If you participate in a sport that Gompers Preparatory Academy doesn't offer, consider joining a local non-school team to get practice and compete.

Boys Teams	Girls Teams
Lacrosse Var JV Fr
Basketball Var JV Fr	Basketball Var JV Fr
Golf Var JV Fr
Tennis Var JV Fr	Tennis 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
Crosscountry Var JV Fr	Crosscountry Var JV Fr
Soccer Var JV Fr	Soccer 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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