Location: Apple Valley, CA
Are you a student or parent at High Desert Premier Academy? Want to understand how to get the most out of high school?
We've written the best guide to High Desert Premier Academy available. Here we'll cover:
- Breakdowns of student ethnicity, gender, and family income
- How safe High Desert Premier Academy is to attend
- SAT/ACT/AP scores earned by High Desert Premier Academy students
- Which AP/IB classes you can take at High Desert Premier Academy
- Every sports team you can join at High Desert Premier Academy
Let's get started!
Basic Information
High Desert Premier Academy is a public school, supporting grades 0 to 12 . It's located in Apple Valley, CA in San Bernardino County.
Based on its location, High Desert Premier Academy is classified as a school in a large suburb. Here's the location on a map:
Contact Information
Mailing address:
High Desert Premier Academy12555 Navajo Rd. Apple Valley, CA 92308-6511
Phone number: 7602477267
High Desert Premier Academy homepage: http://www.highdesertpremier.com/
Principal: Kim BrockEmail the principal: [email protected]
Student Demographics
Student Enrollment
The total enrollment at High Desert Premier Academy is 411 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, High Desert Premier Academy 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 High Desert Premier Academy growing or shrinking? This will help you see trends in where the school is headed.
From our calculations, the enrollment at High Desert Premier Academy has steadily decreased over the past few years. We calculate this by comparing enrollment in grades 9 to 12.
| Male Students | Female Students | All Students | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9th grade | 8 | 7 | 15 |
| 10th grade | 28 | 32 | 60 |
| 11th grade | 47 | 52 | 99 |
| 12th grade | 73 | 69 | 142 |
As you can see in the table above, the senior class is 127 students larger than the freshman class. This suggests that High Desert Premier Academy is shrinking in size and taking on fewer students.
There are a few reasons this can happen. The population of Apple Valley could be decreasing, thus sending fewer students into High Desert Premier Academy. Alternatively, other schools (like charter or private schools) might be appearing, drawing students away.
Gender Split
Are there more boys or girls at High Desert Premier Academy?
From our statistics, High Desert Premier Academy has a 50:50 split between male and female students in the high school grades.
High Desert Premier Academy has a balanced male-female ratio that's largely representative of the general population in San Bernardino 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 High Desert Premier Academy 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 High Desert Premier Academy? Does one ethnicity make up most of the student body, or is it fairly balanced?
From our statistics, High Desert Premier Academy 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 High Desert Premier Academy 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 | 0.2% | 1 |
| Asian | 0.7% | 3 |
| Hispanic | 42.0% | 173 |
| Black | 12.6% | 52 |
| White | 42.8% | 176 |
| Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander | 0.4% | 2 |
| Two or more races | 0.9% | 4 |
High schools usually reflect the population in the surrounding area, so the ethnicities of students likely resembles those of Apple Valley. 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 High Desert Premier Academy Families
What are the family incomes of students at High Desert Premier Academy? 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 High Desert Premier Academy, 0.9% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 47.4% qualify for free lunches.
This means High Desert Premier Academy has a below average level of poverty. With most students not qualifying for free or reduced price lunches, High Desert Premier Academy is below average among California schools in poverty level. The income level of families in Apple Valley is thus likely to be relatively high.
| Number | Percent | |
|---|---|---|
| Reduced-price lunches | 4 | 0.9% |
| Free lunches | 195 | 47.4% |
| Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches | 212 | 51.5% |
As with ethnicity, this likely reflects the surrounding community in Apple Valley and doesn't speak much about the school itself.
High Desert Premier Academy 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. High Desert Premier Academy 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 High Desert Premier Academy doesn't cover, look to your local community for activities, or to the Internet for self-study AP classes.
Download our free guide on the top 5 strategies you must be using to improve your score. This guide was written by Harvard graduates and SAT perfect scorers. If you apply the strategies in this guide, you'll study smarter and make huge score improvements.
School Safety
How safe is High Desert Premier Academy 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 High Desert Premier Academy: 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 High Desert Premier Academy students at risk.
In the school year of 2011-2012, there were 0 referrals to law enforcement, and 2 school-related arrests (2 males, 0 females). This is out of a total enrollment of 517 students.
To put this into perspective, most California schools (59% of them) reported 0 law enforcement referrals and arrests.
This means that 0.3 High Desert Premier Academy 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 High Desert Premier Academy significantly different from other schools in the area? It could be that High Desert Premier Academy 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:
Apple Valley Unified School District Safety
| School Name | Total Referred | Total Arrests | Enrollment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Academy For Academic Excellence | 0 | 0 | 1369 |
| Granite Hills High | 0 | 4 | 1867 |
| Apple Valley High | 0 | 0 | 2113 |
| Willow Park High | 0 | 0 | 55 |
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 High Desert Premier Academy? Will you be competitive for college? Will you have access to advanced classes?
We've compiled everything we could find about High Desert Premier Academy's academics here.
Standardized Testing
Next, we'll look at another major piece of high school academics: standardized testing performance for High Desert Premier Academy students. These are tests that are administered to large populations of students for comparison purposes.
State Tests
As of 2014, eleventh graders attending High Desert Premier Academy 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 High Desert Premier Academy 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 High Desert Premier Academy.
English/Language Arts
At High Desert Premier Academy, 10% of students meet or exceed state standards in English/Language Arts.
This is considered well below average and puts High Desert Premier Academy in the bottom 25% of all high schools in California for English/Language Arts. The vast majority of High Desert Premier Academy students don't meet state standards, and only a small percentage pass.
This low percentage itself isn't much cause for concern - as teachers and students get more familiar with the new Common Core, the pass rate at High Desert Premier Academy will likely increase. But it still reflects High Desert Premier Academy's low standing 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 High Desert Premier Academy, 3% of students meet or exceed state standards in Math. This is considered well below average and puts High Desert Premier Academy in the bottom 25% of all high schools in California. The vast majority of High Desert Premier Academy 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
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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Sources
The data on this page is drawn from a variety of sources, including (but not limited to):
- National Center for Educational Statistics CCD 2013-2014
- "Free or reduced price lunch: A proxy for poverty?", NCES Blog
- CRDC 2011-2012 school year data
- California Department of Education SAT, ACT, and AP Test Results
- California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) System Results
- IBO.org