Lowell High School: Full Guide

Location: San Francisco, CA

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

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

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

Let's get started!

Basic Information

Lowell High School is a public school, supporting grades 9 to 12 . It's located in San Francisco, CA in San Francisco County.

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

Contact Information

Mailing address:

Lowell High School
1101 Eucalyptus Dr.
San Francisco, CA 94132-1401

Phone number: 4157592730

Lowell High School homepage: https://lhs-sfusd-ca.schoolloop.com/

Principal: Andrew Ishibashi
Email the principal: [email protected]

Student Demographics

Student Enrollment

The total enrollment at Lowell High School is 2696 students, making it a very large high school, in the top 10% of all California high schools by size.

Wow! Attending Lowell High might feel like attending a college. You'll be surrounded by a large group of students (over 500 per class) and have more options for activities and clubs to join, which can be exciting.

On the other hand, you may also find that resources like counseling are spread thin across so many students. Make sure that you can get enough teacher and counselor attention to succeed at Lowell High, which may require being proactive.

Growth in Student Body Size

Is Lowell High School growing or shrinking? This will help you see trends in where the school is headed.

From our calculations, the enrollment at Lowell 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	260	406	666
10th grade	247	408	655
11th grade	306	400	706
12th grade	303	366	669

As you can see in the table above, the senior class is 3 students larger than the freshman class. This suggests that Lowell High is shrinking in size and taking on fewer students.

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

Gender Split

Are there more boys or girls at Lowell High School?

From our statistics, Lowell High has a 42:58 split between male and female students in the high school grades.

There is a large female majority at Lowell High, and the imbalance is greater than you would expect from the general population in San Francisco County. As a result, it'll feel like there are a lot more girls than boys in your classes.

Sometimes this imbalance can result from random chance and may not suggest anything about Lowell High. In other cases, the school might preferentially select for females (if it has its own admissions criteria), or parents with female kids might prefer to send them to Lowell High. In yet other cases, other neighboring schools might attract male students, drawing them away from Lowell High.

If this gender imbalance is a concern for you, we suggest contacting Lowell High administration and asking if they have any thoughts about why there's a female majority. Their phone number is 4157592730.

Ethnicity Breakdown

What's the racial diversity at Lowell High School? Does one ethnicity make up most of the student body, or is it fairly balanced?

From our statistics, Lowell High has a somewhat homogenous student body, with the majority of students identifying as one ethnicity, but not representing over 70% of the student body. Most schools in California fit this profile, so Lowell High isn't out of the ordinary. Most students attending class with you will be of the predominant ethnicity, but there will be meaningful diversity from other races.

The majority of students at Lowell High are Asian. Across all of California, Asian students make up 11.5% of enrollment, but it's rare for a school to be majority Asian. Thus Lowell High is notable in California for having such a strong Asian presence.

	Percentage	Number
American Indian/Alaska Native	0.2%	8
Asian	64.6%	1742
Hispanic	9.6%	261
Black	2.5%	69
White	14.5%	391
Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander	0.7%	20
Two or more races	7.6%	205

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

What are the family incomes of students at Lowell 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 Lowell High, 16.3% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 26.8% qualify for free lunches.

This means Lowell High has a below average level of poverty. With most students not qualifying for free or reduced price lunches, Lowell High is below average among California schools in poverty level. The income level of families in San Francisco is thus likely to be relatively high.

	Number	Percent
Reduced-price lunches	440	16.3%
Free lunches	723	26.8%
Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches	1533	56.8%

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

Lowell 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. Lowell 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 Lowell High doesn't cover, look to your local community for activities, or to the Internet for self-study AP classes.

School Safety

How safe is Lowell 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 Lowell 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 Lowell High students at risk.

Compare this school with other high schools in the same school district, using the following table:

San Francisco Unified School District Safety

School Name	Total Referred	Total Arrests	Enrollment
Asawa (ruth) San Francisco Sch Of The Arts, A Publ	0	0	611
Marshall (thurgood) High	0	0	666
Lincoln (abraham) High	0	0	2062
Balboa High	0	0	1429
Downtown High	0	0	244
Galileo High	0	0	2209

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

We've compiled everything we could find about Lowell 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 Lowell 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 Lowell 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 Lowell High School SAT scores.

Here's a breakdown of SAT scores by section:

Average SAT Scores (2013-2014)

Source	Critical Reading	Math	Writing	Composite
Lowell High	589	631	588	1800
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 1800 as an SAT score? Find out with our complete 1800 SAT score guide, including which colleges you can get into with a 1800 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 Lowell High School ACT scores with the rest of the country.

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

Average ACT Scores

Source	English	Math	Reading	Science
Lowell High	27	29	27	27
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 Lowell 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 1500 students in grades 9-12 at Lowell High take 3640 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 Lowell 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 Lowell 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.