Half Moon Bay High School: Full Guide

Location: Half Moon Bay, CA

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

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

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

Let's get started!

Basic Information

Half Moon Bay High School is a public school, supporting grades 9 to 12 . It's located in Half Moon Bay, CA in San Mateo County.

Based on its location, Half Moon Bay High is classified as a school in a town fringe area, or more than 10 miles from an urbanized area. Here's the location on a map:

Contact Information

Mailing address:

Half Moon Bay High School
498 Kelly Ave.
Half Moon Bay, CA 94019-1795

Phone number: 6507127200

Half Moon Bay High School homepage: https://hmbhs.schoolloop.com/

Principal: John Nazar
Email the principal: [email protected]

Student Demographics

Student Enrollment

The total enrollment at Half Moon Bay High School is 995 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, Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay High School growing or shrinking? This will help you see trends in where the school is headed.

From our calculations, the enrollment at Half Moon Bay 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	122	137	259
10^th grade	149	127	276
11^th grade	107	119	226
12^th grade	114	120	234

As you can see in the table above, the freshman class is 25 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 Half Moon Bay could be growing in population, thus sending more students into Half Moon Bay High. Alternatively, Half Moon Bay High could be relaxing its student policies and taking in more students.

Gender Split

Are there more boys or girls at Half Moon Bay High School?

From our statistics, Half Moon Bay High has a 50:50 split between male and female students in the high school grades.

Half Moon Bay High has a balanced male-female ratio that's largely representative of the general population in San Mateo 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 Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay High School? Does one ethnicity make up most of the student body, or is it fairly balanced?

From our statistics, Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay 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	0.4%	4
Asian	3.7%	37
Hispanic	43.9%	437
Black	0.5%	5
White	48.8%	486
Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander	0.1%	1
Two or more races	2.5%	25

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

What are the family incomes of students at Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay High, 6.9% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 18.7% qualify for free lunches.

This means Half Moon Bay High has a low poverty level. The overwhelming majority of students at Half Moon Bay High don't qualify for free or reduced price lunches. Half Moon Bay is thus likely to be an affluent community, with quite high family incomes.

	Number	Percent
Reduced-price lunches	69	6.9%
Free lunches	187	18.7%
Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches	739	74.2%

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

Because Half Moon Bay High is in the top quartile of schools by family income, it's likely to be well-funded relative to other high schools in California. This means you'll likely have access to advanced coursework like AP/IB classes and better-funded extracurriculars and sports.

It's still up to you, though, to take advantage of the resources Half Moon Bay High has to offer. If you work hard and spend your time effectively, you'll likely be well positioned to succeed in college and beyond.

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School Safety

How safe is Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay High students at risk.

In the school year of 2011-2012, there were 2 referrals to law enforcement (2 male, 0 female), and 2 school-related arrests (2 males, 0 females). This is out of a total enrollment of 943 students.

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

This means that 0.4 Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay High School significantly different from other schools in the area? It could be that Half Moon Bay 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:

Cabrillo Unified School District Safety

School Name	Total Referred	Total Arrests	Enrollment
Pilarcitos Alternative High (continuation)	2	0	35

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 Half Moon Bay High School? Will you be competitive for college? Will you have access to advanced classes?

We've compiled everything we could find about Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay High, 89% (of 251) Half Moon Bay 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%.

Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay High School SAT scores.

The average composite SAT score is a 1570 out of 2400, compared to a national average of 1500. Each year, roughly 201 at Half Moon Bay High take the SAT.

This is an above-average SAT score, putting Half Moon Bay High School in the top 25% of all California high schools and well above the national average (63% of students score above the national average). This is a notable academic achievement that distinguishes Half Moon Bay High as a high-achieving school.

This is a good indication that you'll receive an above-average education at Half Moon Bay High. While your school isn't in the very top echelon of all California public schools, you're still in a great environment.

Here's a breakdown of SAT scores by section:

Average SAT Scores (2013-2014)

Source	Critical Reading	Math	Writing	Composite
Half Moon Bay High	526	524	520	1570
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 1570 as an SAT score? Find out with our complete 1570 SAT score guide, including which colleges you can get into with a 1570 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 Half Moon Bay High School ACT scores with the rest of the country.

At Half Moon Bay High, the average ACT composite score was 24, compared to the nationwide average of 20. Each year, roughly 42 out of 995 total students take the ACT.

This is very good performance, putting Half Moon Bay High in the top 25% of high schools in California by ACT score. Nationwide, a 24 on the ACT is 74th percentile, so most ACT test takers at Half Moon Bay High are well above average.

Since the ACT is designed to gauge what you learn in school, high ACT scores are are a good indication that you'll get a great education and be surrounded by other students who value academic achievements.

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

Average ACT Scores

Source	English	Math	Reading	Science
Half Moon Bay High	23	25	24	24
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 Half Moon Bay 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 301 students in grades 9-12 at Half Moon Bay High take 558 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 Half Moon Bay High is 3.1 out of 5.

This is a solid achievement showing above average performance. The majority of students get a passing grade of 3 or above, placing them above the national average. This performance places Half Moon Bay High School in the top 25% of schools for AP tests.

Half Moon Bay High therefore has a robust AP program with classes that will help you pass the AP exam. Furthermore, a sizable number of students still earn a 4 or a 5 on their AP tests, so if you're motivated to do well, you can still get a great AP score.

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 Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay High, there is a total enrollment of 276 in AP courses (a student taking more than one AP course counts more than once).

Of AP-taking students, 233 took AP tests for ALL AP courses. 4 students took AP tests for SOME AP Courses, and 38 took AP courses but took NO tests.

This is good test participation. Most AP students at Half Moon Bay 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. Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay 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, 104 students passed every AP test they took, which is a fantastic job. 35 students passed some but not all AP exams, and 99 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 Half Moon Bay High School fail all the AP exams they take.

Overall, this points to a fairly strong AP program at Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay High may be stronger at some subjects and weaker in others.

If you attend Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay High.

English/Language Arts

At Half Moon Bay High School, 51% of students meet or exceed state standards in English/Language Arts.

This is considered above average and puts Half Moon Bay High in the top 50% of all high schools in California for English/Language Arts. Around half of Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay High will likely rise over time. But it still reflects Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay High School, 32% of students meet or exceed state standards in Math. This is considered well below average and puts Half Moon Bay High in the bottom 25% of all high schools in California. The vast majority of Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay High. Taking AP/IB classes also raises your weighted GPA and makes you a stronger college applicant.

Furthermore, many colleges will accept your Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay High School offer?

AP Courses

Half Moon Bay High School offers AP courses in 17 subjects.

This is an impressive number of AP subjects, putting Half Moon Bay High School in the top 25% of California schools in AP offerings. You'll likely have all of the most popular AP courses available to you, as well as some broader interests.

The total number of AP subjects is 38, so Half Moon Bay High is missing a good number of subjects, but these are likely the least popular subjects, like less popular foreign languages. If there are any AP courses you want to take that aren't being offered at Half Moon Bay High, ask your counselor for other options.

Of course, keep in mind that quality matters even more than quantity - it's important that your AP courses are taught well by engaging teachers. But the strong AP program at Half Moon Bay High likely means you'll be in good hands.

The following AP courses were offered at Half Moon Bay High during 2015-2016:

Course Title
Calculus AB
Calculus BC
Chemistry
English Language and Composition
English Literature and Composition
Environmental Science
French Language and Culture
Human Geography
Physics 2: Algebra-Based
Psychology
Spanish Language and Culture
Statistics
Studio Art: 2-D Design
Studio Art: Drawing
United States Government and Politics
United States History
World History

Sports Teams

Finally, we'll cover which sports teams are available at Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay High.

By the way, the Half Moon Bay High mascot is the Cougars. Go Cougars!

Half Moon Bay High School fields 13 teams for girls' sports. This is a sizable number that puts Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay High doesn't offer, consider looking for a local non-school team that you can join.

And now for the boys: Half Moon Bay High School fields 17 teams for boys' sports. This puts Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay 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
Waterpolo Var JV Fr	Waterpolo 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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