Laguna Beach High School: Full Guide

Location: Laguna Beach, CA

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

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

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

Let's get started!

Basic Information

Laguna Beach High School is a public school, supporting grades 9 to 12 . It's located in Laguna Beach, CA in Orange County.

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

Contact Information

Mailing address:

Laguna Beach High School
625 Park Ave.
Laguna Beach, CA 92651-2340

Phone number: 9494977750

Laguna Beach High School homepage: http://www.lbusd.org/page.cfm?p=522

Principal: Christopher Herzfeld
Email the principal: [email protected]

Student Demographics

Student Enrollment

The total enrollment at Laguna Beach High School is 829 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, Laguna Beach 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 Laguna Beach High School growing or shrinking? This will help you see trends in where the school is headed.

From our calculations, the enrollment at Laguna Beach 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
9th grade	42	37	79
10th grade	137	128	265
11th grade	120	103	223
12th grade	123	138	261

As you can see in the table above, the senior class is 182 students larger than the freshman class. This suggests that Laguna Beach High is shrinking in size and taking on fewer students.

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

Gender Split

Are there more boys or girls at Laguna Beach High School?

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

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

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

The majority of students at Laguna Beach High are white. In California, white students make up 26.3% of all California students, and are the second most common ethnicity after Hispanic students. Thus Laguna Beach High is one of hundreds of schools in the state that have a majority of white students.

	Percentage	Number
American Indian/Alaska Native	0.1%	1
Asian	3.2%	27
Hispanic	8.8%	73
Black	1.3%	11
White	84.3%	699
Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander	0.2%	2
Two or more races	1.9%	16

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

What are the family incomes of students at Laguna Beach 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 Laguna Beach High, 2.6% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 4.9% qualify for free lunches.

This means Laguna Beach High has a very low poverty level. Nearly no students at Laguna Beach High qualify for free or reduced price lunches. Laguna Beach is thus likely to have a very affluent community, and Laguna Beach High is in the top 10% of California schools in terms of family income.

	Number	Percent
Reduced-price lunches	22	2.6%
Free lunches	41	4.9%
Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches	766	92.4%

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

Because Laguna Beach 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 Laguna Beach 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.

School Safety

How safe is Laguna Beach 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 Laguna Beach 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 Laguna Beach High students at risk.

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

We've compiled everything we could find about Laguna Beach 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 Laguna Beach 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.

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 Laguna Beach 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 Laguna Beach High School SAT scores.

Here's a breakdown of SAT scores by section:

Average SAT Scores (2013-2014)

Source	Critical Reading	Math	Writing	Composite
Laguna Beach High	567	567	571	1700
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 1700 as an SAT score? Find out with our complete 1700 SAT score guide, including which colleges you can get into with a 1700 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 Laguna Beach High School ACT scores with the rest of the country.

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

Average ACT Scores

Source	English	Math	Reading	Science
Laguna Beach High	27	25	25	25
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 Laguna Beach 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 240 students in grades 9-12 at Laguna Beach High take 448 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 Laguna Beach 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.

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 Laguna Beach 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.