Paramount High School: Full Guide

Location: Paramount, CA

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

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

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

Let's get started!

Basic Information

Paramount High School is a public school, supporting grades 9 to 12 . It's located in Paramount, CA in Los Angeles County.

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

Contact Information

Mailing address:

Paramount High School
14429 S. Downey Ave.
Paramount, CA 90723-4378

Phone number: 5626026067

Paramount High School homepage: https://phs-pusd-ca.schoolloop.com/

Principal: Greg Buckner
Email the principal: [email protected]

Student Demographics

Student Enrollment

The total enrollment at Paramount High School is 4869 students, making it a very large high school, in the top 10% of all California high schools by size.

Wow! Attending Paramount 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 Paramount High, which may require being proactive.

Growth in Student Body Size

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

From our calculations, the enrollment at Paramount 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	641	613	1254
10^th grade	643	620	1263
11^th grade	609	630	1239
12^th grade	522	590	1112

As you can see in the table above, the freshman class is 142 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 Paramount could be growing in population, thus sending more students into Paramount High. Alternatively, Paramount High could be relaxing its student policies and taking in more students.

Gender Split

Are there more boys or girls at Paramount High School?

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

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

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

The majority of students at Paramount High 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 Paramount High fits within this category.

	Percentage	Number
American Indian/Alaska Native	0.0%	2
Asian	1.3%	64
Hispanic	87.5%	4264
Black	8.6%	419
White	1.1%	58
Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander	0.7%	35
Two or more races	0.5%	27

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

What are the family incomes of students at Paramount 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 Paramount High, 10.0% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 70.1% qualify for free lunches.

This means Paramount High 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, Paramount High can be classified as a high poverty school. The income level of families in Paramount is thus likely to be low.

	Number	Percent
Reduced-price lunches	491	10.0%
Free lunches	3417	70.1%
Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches	961	19.7%

As with ethnicity, this likely reflects the surrounding community in Paramount 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 Paramount High 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 Paramount High 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 Paramount 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 Paramount 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 Paramount High students at risk.

In the school year of 2011-2012, there were 152 referrals to law enforcement (118 male, 34 female), and 42 school-related arrests (33 males, 9 females). This is out of a total enrollment of 5058 students.

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

This means that 3.8 Paramount High has minor safety issues. For every 100 students, there were just 3.8 law-enforcement related actions, but this is still higher than 75% of California schools.

With this record, is Paramount High School significantly different from other schools in the area? It could be that Paramount 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:

Paramount Unified School District Safety

School Name	Total Referred	Enrollment
Buena Vista High	0	6
Paramount Unified Community Day	2	28
Paramount Alternative Education Center	0	79

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

We've compiled everything we could find about Paramount 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 Paramount 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 Paramount High, 79% (of 1013) Paramount 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%.

Paramount High is in the 42nd percentile of all public high schools in California for graduation rate. This is below 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 Paramount 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 Paramount High School SAT scores.

The average composite SAT score is a 1290 out of 2400, compared to a national average of 1500. Each year, roughly 534 at Paramount High take the SAT.

This is a very low SAT score, putting Paramount High in the bottom 25% of all California schools, and well below the national average. Only 19% of SAT takers here score above the national average. Unfortunately, this suggests that most students attending Paramount High 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 Paramount High'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
Paramount High	426	439	426	1290
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 1290 as an SAT score? Find out with our complete 1290 SAT score guide, including which colleges you can get into with a 1290 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 Paramount High School ACT scores with the rest of the country.

At Paramount High, the average ACT composite score was 18, compared to the nationwide average of 20. Each year, roughly 158 out of 4868 total students take the ACT.

This is below average performance, putting Paramount High in the bottom 50% of California high schools. Most students who take the ACT are below the national average.

Since the ACT tests what you learn in school, this is a pretty strong indicator that you'll get an average or below average education at Paramount High.

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

Average ACT Scores

Source	English	Math	Reading	Science
Paramount High	17	20	19	18
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 Paramount 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 624 students in grades 9-12 at Paramount High take 1199 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 Paramount High is 1.8 out of 5.

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

This isn't all bad news for you, though. It's still good that Paramount High 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 Paramount 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 Paramount High, there is a total enrollment of 752 in AP courses (a student taking more than one AP course counts more than once).

Of AP-taking students, 599 took AP tests for ALL AP courses. 620 students took AP tests for SOME AP Courses, and 18 took AP courses but took NO tests.

This is acceptable test participation. Most AP students at Paramount High School take the AP exam for just some of their AP courses, outnumbering students who take exams for all or none of their courses. The good news here is that Paramount High students feel confident to take at least some AP tests. The question you may want to figure out is why more students don't feel confident enough to take tests for ALL their AP classes. This is something you can ask your counselor or AP teachers.

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 Paramount 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, 62 students passed every AP test they took, which is a fantastic job. 159 students passed some but not all AP exams, and 451 students didn't pass ANY AP exam they took.

Unfortunately, this is poor performance compared to other high schools. At Paramount High School, 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 Paramount High, 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 Paramount High are on the more difficult side.

However, if you're a student at Paramount High, 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 Paramount 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 Paramount 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 Paramount 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 Paramount High.

English/Language Arts

At Paramount High School, 59% of students meet or exceed state standards in English/Language Arts.

This is considered above average and puts Paramount High in the top 50% of all high schools in California for English/Language Arts. Around half of Paramount 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 Paramount High will likely rise over time. But it still reflects Paramount 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 Paramount High School, 23% of students meet or exceed state standards in Math. This is considered well below average and puts Paramount High in the bottom 25% of all high schools in California. The vast majority of Paramount 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 Paramount 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 Paramount 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 Paramount High. Taking AP/IB classes also raises your weighted GPA and makes you a stronger college applicant.

Furthermore, many colleges will accept your Paramount 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 Paramount High School offer?

AP Courses

Paramount High School offers AP courses in 14 subjects.

This is a reasonable number of AP subjects, putting Paramount High School 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 Paramount High 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 Paramount High, 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 Paramount High 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 Paramount High during 2015-2016:

Course Title
Biology
Calculus AB
Calculus BC
Chemistry
Computer Science A
English Language and Composition
English Literature and Composition
European History
Microeconomics
Physics 1: Algebra-Based
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 Paramount 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 Paramount High.

By the way, the Paramount High mascot is the Pirates. Go Pirates!

Paramount High School fields 21 teams for girls' sports. This is an impressively high number that puts Paramount High in the top 10% of California schools that offer girls' sports. If you're a female, you'll have plenty of options of sports and levels to try out for. Furthermore, schools that offer more teams typically have a strong sports culture and field competitive teams.

And now for the boys: Paramount High School fields 22 teams for boys' sports. This puts Paramount High in the top 25% of California schools that offer boys' sports. Boys will have a large pick of sports to try out for.

Boys Teams	Girls Teams
	Lacrosse Var JV Fr
Basketball Var JV Fr	Basketball Var JV Fr
Tennis Var JV Fr	Tennis Var JV Fr
Football Var JV Fr
Wrestling 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
Trackfield Var JV Fr	Trackfield Var JV Fr
Crosscountry Var JV Fr	Crosscountry Var JV Fr
Soccer Var JV Fr	Soccer Var JV Fr
	Fieldhockey 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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