Natomas Charter School: Full Guide

Location: Sacramento, CA

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

We've written the best guide to Natomas Charter available. Here we'll cover:

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

Let's get started!

Basic Information

Natomas Charter School is a public school, supporting grades 0 to 12 . It's located in Sacramento, CA in Sacramento County.

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

Contact Information

Mailing address:

Natomas Charter School
4600 Blackrock Dr.
Sacramento, CA 95835

Phone number: 9169285353

Natomas Charter School homepage: http://www.natomascharter.org/

Principal: Ting Sun
Email the principal: [email protected]

Student Demographics

Student Enrollment

The total enrollment at Natomas Charter School is 1492 students, making it a large high school, in the top 25% of all California high schools by size.

Attending Natomas Charter will feel like attending a small college. You'll have a few hundred students in your class, enough to provide an interesting set of activities, sports, and classes to try. But compared to the largest high schools in California, the student body size won't be overwhelming.

Growth in Student Body Size

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

From our calculations, the enrollment at Natomas Charter 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	44	90	134
10^th grade	56	81	137
11^th grade	21	82	103
12^th grade	31	73	104

As you can see in the table above, the freshman class is 30 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 Sacramento could be growing in population, thus sending more students into Natomas Charter. Alternatively, Natomas Charter could be relaxing its student policies and taking in more students.

Gender Split

Are there more boys or girls at Natomas Charter School?

From our statistics, Natomas Charter has a 32:68 split between male and female students in the high school grades.

There is a large female majority at Natomas Charter, and the imbalance is greater than you would expect from the general population in Sacramento 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 Natomas Charter. 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 Natomas Charter. In yet other cases, other neighboring schools might attract male students, drawing them away from Natomas Charter.

If this gender imbalance is a concern for you, we suggest contacting Natomas Charter administration and asking if they have any thoughts about why there's a female majority. Their phone number is 9169285353.

Ethnicity Breakdown

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

From our statistics, Natomas Charter 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 Natomas Charter 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	0.6%	9
Asian	18.0%	269
Hispanic	21.1%	316
Black	7.5%	113
White	36.0%	538
Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander	0.6%	9
Two or more races	15.9%	238

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

What are the family incomes of students at Natomas Charter 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 Natomas Charter, 3.3% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 13.8% qualify for free lunches.

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

	Number	Percent
Reduced-price lunches	50	3.3%
Free lunches	207	13.8%
Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches	1235	82.7%

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

Because Natomas Charter 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 Natomas Charter 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 Natomas Charter 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 Natomas Charter: 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 Natomas Charter students at risk.

In the school year of 2011-2012, there were 0 referrals to law enforcement, and 0 school-related arrests. This is out of a total enrollment of 1366 students.

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

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

Natomas Unified School District Safety

School Name	Total Referred	Enrollment
Natomas High	0	1234
Discovery High	6	149
Inderkum High	0	1504
Natomas Pacific Pathways Prep	0	481
Leroy Greene Academy	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 Natomas Charter School? Will you be competitive for college? Will you have access to advanced classes?

We've compiled everything we could find about Natomas Charter's academics here.

Standardized Testing

Next, we'll look at another major piece of high school academics: standardized testing performance for Natomas Charter 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 Natomas Charter School SAT scores.

The average composite SAT score is a 1550 out of 2400, compared to a national average of 1500. Each year, roughly 110 at Natomas Charter take the SAT.

This is an above-average SAT score, putting Natomas Charter School in the top 25% of all California high schools and well above the national average (52% of students score above the national average). This is a notable academic achievement that distinguishes Natomas Charter as a high-achieving school.

This is a good indication that you'll receive an above-average education at Natomas Charter. 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
Natomas Charter	530	499	521	1550
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 1550 as an SAT score? Find out with our complete 1550 SAT score guide, including which colleges you can get into with a 1550 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 Natomas Charter School ACT scores with the rest of the country.

At Natomas Charter, the average ACT composite score was 23, compared to the nationwide average of 20. Each year, roughly 43 out of 478 total students take the ACT.

This is above average performance, putting Natomas Charter 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 Natomas Charter.

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

Average ACT Scores

Source	English	Math	Reading	Science
Natomas Charter	25	22	25	22
California	21.8	22.8	22.3	21.7
UnitedStates	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 Natomas Charter 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 48 students in grades 9-12 at Natomas Charter take 51 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 Natomas Charter is 1.9 out of 5.

Compared to schools across California, this score puts Natomas Charter 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 Natomas Charter School in the bottom 25 % of schools for AP tests.

This isn't all bad news for you, though. It's still good that Natomas Charter 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 Natomas Charter 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 Natomas Charter, there is a total enrollment of 31 in AP courses (a student taking more than one AP course counts more than once).

Of AP-taking students, 0 took AP tests for ALL AP courses. 23 students took AP tests for SOME AP Courses, and 6 took AP courses but took NO tests.

It seems that most students at Natomas Charter School who take AP courses do not take any AP exams at the end of the year. This is quite unusual, and it's possible that there is a reporting error from the high school to the government (where we got this information). Another possibility is that Natomas Charter offers an AP course to students, but don't expect them to take the actual AP exam.

You may want to ask your school counselor about whether AP course students usually sign up for the test. If not, ask why that is.

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 Natomas Charter 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, 8 students passed every AP test they took, which is a fantastic job. 7 students passed some but not all AP exams, and 4 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 Natomas Charter School fail all the AP exams they take.

Overall, this points to a fairly strong AP program at Natomas Charter. 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 Natomas Charter may be stronger at some subjects and weaker in others.

If you attend Natomas Charter, 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 Natomas Charter 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 Natomas Charter 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 Natomas Charter 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 Natomas Charter.

English/Language Arts

At Natomas Charter School, 93% of students meet or exceed state standards in English/Language Arts.

This is considered excellent and puts Natomas Charter in the top 5% of all high schools in California for English/Language Arts. The vast majority of Natomas Charter students easily meet state standards, and many of them are likely well above average. Students here are very well prepared academically.

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 Natomas Charter School, 37% of students meet or exceed state standards in Math. This is considered well below average and puts Natomas Charter in the bottom 25% of all high schools in California. The vast majority of Natomas Charter 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 Natomas Charter 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 Natomas Charter. 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 Natomas Charter. Taking AP/IB classes also raises your weighted GPA and makes you a stronger college applicant.

Furthermore, many colleges will accept your Natomas Charter 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 Natomas Charter School offer?

AP Courses

Natomas Charter School offers AP courses in 1 subject.

This is a low number of AP subjects, putting Natomas Charter School in the bottom 25% of California schools offering AP courses. You'll be very limited in your ability to explore your interests in math, science, humanities, or social sciences at Natomas Charter.

Take a look at every AP subject offered. If you want to take any AP courses not being offered at Natomas Charter, ask your counselor for ideas on how to cover the gap. If you're a strong student and not feeling adequately challenged, you might consider transferring to another high school to access a more advanced curriculum.

Of course, keep in mind that even though Natomas Charter doesn't offer many AP courses, it might teach the few it does offer quite well. You can see student performance in the AP score analysis section above.

The following AP courses were offered at Natomas Charter during 2015-2016:

Course Title
Calculus AB

Sports Teams

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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