Cuyama Valley High School: Full Guide

Location: New Cuyama, CA

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

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

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

Let's get started!

Basic Information

Cuyama Valley High School is a public school, supporting grades 9 to 12 . It's located in New Cuyama, CA in Santa Barbara County.

Based on its location, Cuyama Valley High is classified as a school in a remote rural area, over 25 miles away from an urbanized area. Here's the location on a map:

Contact Information

Mailing address:

Cuyama Valley High School
2300 Highway 166
New Cuyama, CA 93254-0271

Phone number: 6617662293

Cuyama Valley High School homepage: http://cuyamaunified.org/

Principal: F. Paul Chounet
Email the principal: [email protected]

Student Demographics

Student Enrollment

The total enrollment at Cuyama Valley High School is 79 students, making it a small high school, in the bottom 25% of all California high schools by size.

With at most a few dozen students in your class, you'll get to know most other Cuyama Valley High students well. But the small student body size may mean that you won't get access to the full range of activities and classes that other high schools offer.

If you find that your interests aren't well served by Cuyama Valley High, consider transferring to a larger high school if possible, or find ways to supplement your interests in your community or on the Internet.

Growth in Student Body Size

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

From our calculations, the enrollment at Cuyama Valley 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
9^th grade	7	6	13
10^th grade	13	15	28
11^th grade	11	7	18
12^th grade	9	11	20

As you can see in the table above, the senior class is 7 students larger than the freshman class. This suggests that Cuyama Valley High is shrinking in size and taking on fewer students.

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

Gender Split

Are there more boys or girls at Cuyama Valley High School?

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

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

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

The majority of students at Cuyama Valley 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 Cuyama Valley High fits within this category.

	Percentage	Number
American Indian/Alaska Native	1.2%	1
Asian	1.2%	1
Hispanic	79.7%	63
Black	0.0%	0
White	16.4%	13
Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander	0.0%	0
Two or more races	1.2%	1

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

What are the family incomes of students at Cuyama Valley 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 Cuyama Valley High, 24.0% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 46.8% qualify for free lunches.

This means Cuyama Valley High has a moderate percentage of students at or near poverty. About half of all schools in California show this level of poverty or greater. The income level of families in New Cuyama is likely to be relatively low.

	Number	Percent
Reduced-price lunches	19	24.0%
Free lunches	37	46.8%
Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches	23	29.1%

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

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

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School Safety

How safe is Cuyama Valley 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 Cuyama Valley 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 Cuyama Valley High students at risk.

In the school year of 2011-2012, there were 2 referrals to law enforcement (2 male, 0 female), and 2 school-related arrests (2 males, 0 females). This is out of a total enrollment of 81 students.

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

This means that 4.9 Cuyama Valley High has minor safety issues. For every 100 students, there were just 4.9 law-enforcement related actions, but this is still higher than 75% of California schools.

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

Cuyama Joint Unified School District Safety

School Name	Total Referred	Total Arrests	Enrollment
Sierra Madre High (continuation)	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 Cuyama Valley High School? Will you be competitive for college? Will you have access to advanced classes?

We've compiled everything we could find about Cuyama Valley High's academics here.

Standardized Testing

Next, we'll look at another major piece of high school academics: standardized testing performance for Cuyama Valley 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.

Advanced Placement (AP)

Advanced Placement (AP) classes are college-level courses that are an additional academic challenge may give Cuyama Valley 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 3 students in grades 9-12 at Cuyama Valley High take 0 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 Cuyama Valley High is out of 5.

Compared to schools across California, this score puts Cuyama Valley 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 Cuyama Valley 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 Cuyama Valley 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:

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

English/Language Arts

At Cuyama Valley High School, 54% of students meet or exceed state standards in English/Language Arts.

This is considered above average and puts Cuyama Valley High in the top 50% of all high schools in California for English/Language Arts. Around half of Cuyama Valley 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 Cuyama Valley High will likely rise over time. But it still reflects Cuyama Valley 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 Cuyama Valley High School, 8% of students meet or exceed state standards in Math. This is considered well below average and puts Cuyama Valley High in the bottom 25% of all high schools in California. The vast majority of Cuyama Valley 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.

Sports Teams

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

By the way, the Cuyama Valley High mascot is the Bears. Go Bears!

Cuyama Valley High School fields 8 teams for girls' sports. This is a relatively number that puts Cuyama Valley High in the bottom 50% of California schools that offer girls' sports. This is understandable - sports teams are expensive to support, and many schools would rather put those resources elsewhere. If you participate in a sport that Cuyama Valley High doesn't offer, consider joining a local non-school team to get practice and compete.

And now for the boys: Cuyama Valley High School fields 8 teams for boys' sports. This relatively number puts Cuyama Valley High in the bottom 50% of California schools that offer boys' sports. Sports teams are expensive to support, and Cuyama Valley High may not be able to offer the full range of options. If you participate in a sport that Cuyama Valley High doesn't offer, consider joining a local non-school team to get practice and compete.

Boys Teams	Girls Teams
Basketball Var JV Fr	Basketball Var JV Fr
	Tennis Var JV Fr
Football Var JV Fr
	Fieldhockey Var JV Fr
Volleyball Var JV Fr	Volleyball Var JV Fr
Baseball Var JV Fr
	Softball Var JV Fr
Soccer Var JV Fr	Soccer 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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