Location: Temecula, CA
Are you a student or parent at Susan H. Nelson School? Want to understand how to get the most out of high school?
We've written the best guide to SHNS available. Here we'll cover:
- Breakdowns of student ethnicity, gender, and family income
- How safe SHNS is to attend
- SAT/ACT/AP scores earned by SHNS students
- Which AP/IB classes you can take at SHNS
- Every sports team you can join at SHNS
Let's get started!
Basic Information
Susan H. Nelson School is a public school, supporting grades 6 to 12 . It's located in Temecula, CA in Riverside County.
Based on its location, SHNS is classified as a school in a midsized city. Here's the location on a map:
Contact Information
Mailing address:
Susan H. Nelson School32225 Pio Pico Rd. Temecula, CA 92592
Phone number: 9516957360
Susan H. Nelson School homepage: https://shnhs-tvusd-ca.schoolloop.com/
Principal: Greg CookeEmail the principal: [email protected]
Student Demographics
Student Enrollment
The total enrollment at Susan H. Nelson School is 178 students, making it a somewhat small high school, in the bottom half of all California high schools by size.
As a smaller-sized high school, SHNS will feel like a cozy learning environment. With fewer than 100 students in your class, you'll likely get to know most other students and your teachers well. This will give you the feeling of a small liberal arts college.
But with a smaller student body, you won't have as many activities and clubs to choose from. If you find SHNS lacking for your interests, consider looking to your local community to supplement your interests.
Growth in Student Body Size
Is Susan H. Nelson School growing or shrinking? This will help you see trends in where the school is headed.
From our calculations, the enrollment at SHNS 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 | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| 10th grade | 12 | 22 | 34 |
| 11th grade | 15 | 33 | 48 |
| 12th grade | 28 | 48 | 76 |
As you can see in the table above, the senior class is 70 students larger than the freshman class. This suggests that SHNS is shrinking in size and taking on fewer students.
There are a few reasons this can happen. The population of Temecula could be decreasing, thus sending fewer students into SHNS. Alternatively, other schools (like charter or private schools) might be appearing, drawing students away.
Gender Split
Are there more boys or girls at Susan H. Nelson School?
From our statistics, SHNS has a 35:65 split between male and female students in the high school grades.
There is a large female majority at SHNS, and the imbalance is greater than you would expect from the general population in Riverside County. As a result, it'll feel like there are a lot more girls than boys in your classes.
Sometimes this imbalance can result from random chance and may not suggest anything about SHNS. In other cases, the school might preferentially select for females (if it has its own admissions criteria), or parents with female kids might prefer to send them to SHNS. In yet other cases, other neighboring schools might attract male students, drawing them away from SHNS.
If this gender imbalance is a concern for you, we suggest contacting SHNS administration and asking if they have any thoughts about why there's a female majority. Their phone number is 9516957360.
Ethnicity Breakdown
What's the racial diversity at Susan H. Nelson School? Does one ethnicity make up most of the student body, or is it fairly balanced?
From our statistics, SHNS has a somewhat homogenous student body, with the majority of students identifying as one ethnicity, but not representing over 70% of the student body. Most schools in California fit this profile, so SHNS isn't out of the ordinary. Most students attending class with you will be of the predominant ethnicity, but there will be meaningful diversity from other races.
The majority of students at SHNS are white. In California, white students make up 26.3% of all California students, and are the second most common ethnicity after Hispanic students. Thus SHNS is one of hundreds of schools in the state that have a majority of white students.
| Percentage | Number | |
|---|---|---|
| American Indian/Alaska Native | 1.1% | 2 |
| Asian | 2.2% | 4 |
| Hispanic | 32.0% | 57 |
| Black | 3.9% | 7 |
| White | 55.0% | 98 |
| Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander | 0.5% | 1 |
| Two or more races | 5.0% | 9 |
High schools usually reflect the population in the surrounding area, so the ethnicities of students likely resembles those of Temecula. 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 SHNS Families
What are the family incomes of students at Susan H. Nelson 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 SHNS, 0.0% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 3.3% qualify for free lunches.
This means SHNS has a very low poverty level. Nearly no students at SHNS qualify for free or reduced price lunches. Temecula is thus likely to have a very affluent community, and SHNS is in the top 10% of California schools in terms of family income.
| Number | Percent | |
|---|---|---|
| Reduced-price lunches | 0 | 0.0% |
| Free lunches | 6 | 3.3% |
| Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches | 172 | 96.6% |
As with ethnicity, this likely reflects the surrounding community in Temecula and doesn't speak much about the school itself.
Because SHNS 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 SHNS has to offer. If you work hard and spend your time effectively, you'll likely be well positioned to succeed in college and beyond.
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School Safety
How safe is Susan H. Nelson 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 SHNS: 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 SHNS students at risk.
In the school year of 2011-2012, there were 2 referrals to law enforcement (2 male, 0 female), and 0 school-related arrests. This is out of a total enrollment of 185 students.
To put this into perspective, most California schools (59% of them) reported 0 law enforcement referrals and arrests.
This means that 1.0 SHNS is somewhat safe. For every 100 students, there was fewer than 1 law-enforcement related action. It seems like there are regularly incidents that involve law enforcement, but it's not widespread.
With this record, is Susan H. Nelson School significantly different from other schools in the area? It could be that SHNS 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:
Temecula Valley Unified School District Safety
| School Name | Total Referred | Total Arrests | Enrollment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chaparral High | 0 | 0 | 354 |
| Temecula Preparatory | 0 | 0 | 963 |
| Temecula Valley High | 6 | 0 | 2722 |
| Rancho Vista High | 4 | 0 | 197 |
| Great Oak High | 0 | 0 | 3418 |
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 Susan H. Nelson School? Will you be competitive for college? Will you have access to advanced classes?
We've compiled everything we could find about SHNS's academics here.
Standardized Testing
Next, we'll look at another major piece of high school academics: standardized testing performance for Susan H. Nelson School students. These are tests that are administered to large populations of students for comparison purposes.
State Tests
As of 2014, eleventh graders attending Susan H. Nelson 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 SHNS 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 SHNS.
English/Language Arts
At Susan H. Nelson School, 48% of students meet or exceed state standards in English/Language Arts.
This is considered above average and puts SHNS in the top 50% of all high schools in California for English/Language Arts. Around half of SHNS 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 SHNS will likely rise over time. But it still reflects SHNS'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 Susan H. Nelson School, 12% of students meet or exceed state standards in Math. This is considered well below average and puts SHNS in the bottom 25% of all high schools in California. The vast majority of SHNS 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?
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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