Bellflower High School: Full Guide

Location: Bellflower, CA

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

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

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

Let's get started!

Basic Information

Bellflower High School is a public school, supporting grades 7 to 12 . It's located in Bellflower, CA in Los Angeles County.

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

Contact Information

Mailing address:

Bellflower High School
16703 S. Clark Ave.
Bellflower, CA 90706-4101

Phone number: 5629201801

Bellflower High School homepage: http://www.busd.k12.ca.us/bellflower-high.html

Principal: Mike Lundgren
Email the principal: [email protected]

Student Demographics

Student Enrollment

The total enrollment at Bellflower High School is 2797 students, making it a very large high school, in the top 10% of all California high schools by size.

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

Growth in Student Body Size

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

From our calculations, the enrollment at Bellflower High has steadily 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	262	233	495
10^th grade	242	242	484
11^th grade	228	238	466
12^th grade	205	198	403

As you can see in the table above, the freshman class is 92 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 Bellflower could be growing in population, thus sending more students into Bellflower High. Alternatively, Bellflower High could be relaxing its student policies and taking in more students.

Gender Split

Are there more boys or girls at Bellflower High School?

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

Bellflower 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 Bellflower 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 Bellflower High School? Does one ethnicity make up most of the student body, or is it fairly balanced?

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

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

	Percentage	Number
American Indian/Alaska Native	0.4%	13
Asian	6.7%	190
Hispanic	71.7%	2008
Black	12.8%	359
White	5.5%	156
Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander	1.0%	28
Two or more races	1.5%	43

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

What are the family incomes of students at Bellflower 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 Bellflower High, 16.9% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 60.6% qualify for free lunches.

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

	Number	Percent
Reduced-price lunches	474	16.9%
Free lunches	1697	60.6%
Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches	626	22.3%

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

In the school year of 2011-2012, there were 12 referrals to law enforcement (12 male, 0 female), and 0 school-related arrests. This is out of a total enrollment of 2908 students.

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

This means that 0.4 Bellflower High is a safe school. For every 100 students, there is much fewer than 1 law-enforcement related action. It's not a perfect record, but it happens so infrequently that it might have just been a few bad apples.

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

Bellflower Unified School District Safety

School Name	Total Referred	Enrollment
Mayfair High	24	3445
Somerset Continuation High	10	362
Bellflower Alternative Education Center	14	45

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

We've compiled everything we could find about Bellflower 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 Bellflower 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 Bellflower High, 94% (of 418) Bellflower 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%.

Bellflower High is in the 84th percentile of all public high schools in California for graduation rate. This is well above 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 Bellflower 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 Bellflower High School SAT scores.

The average composite SAT score is a 1400 out of 2400, compared to a national average of 1500. Each year, roughly 211 at Bellflower High take the SAT.

This is a below-average SAT score, putting Bellflower High School in the bottom 50% of all California schools. Only 32% of students here score the national average or higher. Because the SAT measures academic achievement, this suggests that Bellflower High may offer a somewhat lacking high school education, compared to schools with higher SAT averages.

Note, however, that an average is just an average - top performers will still be able to impress. If you work hard and get an SAT score well above Bellflower 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
Bellflower High	466	488	451	1400
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 1400 as an SAT score? Find out with our complete 1400 SAT score guide, including which colleges you can get into with a 1400 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 Bellflower High School ACT scores with the rest of the country.

At Bellflower High, the average ACT composite score was 19, compared to the nationwide average of 20. Each year, roughly 15 out of 1848 total students take the ACT.

This is below average performance, putting Bellflower 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 Bellflower High.

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

Average ACT Scores

Source	English	Math	Reading	Science
Bellflower High	19	20	19	20
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 Bellflower 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 192 students in grades 9-12 at Bellflower High take 325 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 Bellflower High is 2.5 out of 5.

This score puts Bellflower High at average performance. For AP tests, the passing score is considered a 3, and the number of students who pass and don't pass are roughly even. This performance places Bellflower High School in the top 50% of schools for AP tests.

It's great that Bellflower High offers an AP program so you have the opportunity to take courses at a college level. Even though roughly half of all AP students here don't get a passing grade, half do - so with motivated studying throughout the year, you'll be able to beat the average.

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 Bellflower 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 Bellflower High, there is a total enrollment of 145 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. 119 students took AP tests for SOME AP Courses, and 0 took AP courses but took NO tests.

It seems that most students at Bellflower High 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 Bellflower High 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 Bellflower 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, 117 students passed every AP test they took, which is a fantastic job. 0 students passed some but not all AP exams, and 0 students didn't pass ANY AP exam they took.

To find out the passing rates for specific AP courses at Bellflower 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 Bellflower 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 Bellflower 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 Bellflower High.

English/Language Arts

At Bellflower High School, 64% of students meet or exceed state standards in English/Language Arts.

This is considered above average and puts Bellflower High in the top 50% of all high schools in California for English/Language Arts. Around half of Bellflower 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 Bellflower High will likely rise over time. But it still reflects Bellflower 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 Bellflower High School, 29% of students meet or exceed state standards in Math. This is considered well below average and puts Bellflower High in the bottom 25% of all high schools in California. The vast majority of Bellflower 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 Bellflower 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 Bellflower 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 Bellflower High. Taking AP/IB classes also raises your weighted GPA and makes you a stronger college applicant.

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

AP Courses

Bellflower High School offers AP courses in 15 subjects.

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

Course Title
Biology
Calculus AB
Calculus BC
Chemistry
English Language and Composition
English Literature and Composition
Environmental Science
French Language and Culture
Human Geography
Music Theory
Physics 1: Algebra-Based
Spanish Language and Culture
United States Government and Politics
United States History
World History

Sports Teams

Finally, we'll cover which sports teams are available at Bellflower 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 Bellflower High.

By the way, the Bellflower High mascot is the Buccaneers. Go Buccaneers!

Bellflower High School fields 18 teams for girls' sports. This is a high number that puts Bellflower High in the top 25% of California schools that offer girls' sports. If you're a female, you'll have lots of options of sports and levels to try out for.

And now for the boys: Bellflower High School fields 19 teams for boys' sports. This puts Bellflower High in the top 50% of California schools that offer boys' sports. You won't get every sport and level possible here, but you'll have a decent number of options. If you participate in a sport that Bellflower High doesn't offer, consider looking for a local non-school team that you can join.

Boys Teams	Girls Teams
Basketball Var JV Fr	Basketball Var JV Fr
Golf Var JV Fr	Golf Var JV Fr
Tennis Var JV Fr	Tennis Var JV Fr
Football Var JV Fr
Wrestling Var JV Fr
Volleyball Var JV Fr	Volleyball Var JV Fr
Baseball Var JV Fr
	Softball 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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