Arcata High School: Full Guide

Location: Arcata, CA

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

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

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

Let's get started!

Basic Information

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

Based on its location, Arcata High is classified as a school in a remote town, or more than 35 miles from an urbanized area. Here's the location on a map:

Contact Information

Mailing address:

Arcata High School
1720 M St.
Arcata, CA 95521-5741

Phone number: 7078252400

Arcata High School homepage: https://ahs-nhuhsd-ca.schoolloop.com/

Principal: Dave Navarre
Email the principal: [email protected]

Student Demographics

Student Enrollment

The total enrollment at Arcata High School is 832 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, Arcata 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 Arcata High School growing or shrinking? This will help you see trends in where the school is headed.

From our calculations, the enrollment at Arcata 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
9th grade	107	108	215
10th grade	110	116	226
11th grade	112	113	225
12th grade	76	90	166

As you can see in the table above, the freshman class is 49 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 Arcata could be growing in population, thus sending more students into Arcata High. Alternatively, Arcata High could be relaxing its student policies and taking in more students.

Gender Split

Are there more boys or girls at Arcata High School?

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

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

From our statistics, Arcata 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 Arcata 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	2.4%	20
Asian	1.8%	15
Hispanic	8.1%	68
Black	0.8%	7
White	46.1%	384
Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander	0.4%	4
Two or more races	40.1%	334

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

What are the family incomes of students at Arcata 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 Arcata High, 4.5% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 20.3% qualify for free lunches.

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

	Number	Percent
Reduced-price lunches	38	4.5%
Free lunches	169	20.3%
Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches	625	75.1%

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

Because Arcata 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 Arcata 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 Arcata 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 Arcata 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 Arcata High students at risk.

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

Northern Humboldt Union High School District Safety

School Name	Total Referred	Total Arrests	Enrollment
Mckinleyville High	0	8	611
Pacific Coast High (continuation)	2	0	40
Tsurai High (continuation)	0	0	23
Northern Humboldt Community Day	0	0	0
Six Rivers Charter High	0	0	100
Laurel Tree Charter	0	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 Arcata High School? Will you be competitive for college? Will you have access to advanced classes?

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

Here's a breakdown of SAT scores by section:

Average SAT Scores (2013-2014)

Source	Critical Reading	Math	Writing	Composite
Arcata High	562	548	528	1630
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 1630 as an SAT score? Find out with our complete 1630 SAT score guide, including which colleges you can get into with a 1630 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 Arcata High School ACT scores with the rest of the country.

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

Average ACT Scores

Source	English	Math	Reading	Science
Arcata High	25	25	27	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 Arcata 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 122 students in grades 9-12 at Arcata High take 209 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 Arcata 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 Arcata 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.