Acalanes High School: Full Guide

Location: Lafayette, CA

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

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

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

Let's get started!

Basic Information

Acalanes High School is a public school, supporting grades 9 to 12 . It's located in Lafayette, CA in Contra Costa County.

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

Contact Information

Mailing address:

Acalanes High School
1200 Pleasant Hill Rd.
Lafayette, CA 94549-2623

Phone number: 9252803970

Acalanes High School homepage: http://www.acalanes.k12.ca.us/ahs

Principal: Allison Silvestri
Email the principal: [email protected]

Student Demographics

Student Enrollment

The total enrollment at Acalanes High School is 1342 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, Acalanes 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 Acalanes High School growing or shrinking? This will help you see trends in where the school is headed.

From our calculations, the enrollment at Acalanes 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	169	160	329
10^th grade	185	166	351
11^th grade	154	153	307
12^th grade	183	149	332

As you can see in the table above, the senior class is 3 students larger than the freshman class. This suggests that Acalanes High is shrinking in size and taking on fewer students.

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

Gender Split

Are there more boys or girls at Acalanes High School?

From our statistics, Acalanes High has a 53:47 split between male and female students in the high school grades.

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

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

The majority of students at Acalanes High 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 Acalanes High is one of hundreds of schools in the state that have a majority of white students.

	Percentage	Number
American Indian/Alaska Native	0.0%	1
Asian	11.7%	158
Hispanic	7.3%	99
Black	0.9%	13
White	71.8%	964
Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander	0.0%	1
Two or more races	7.8%	106

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

What are the family incomes of students at Acalanes 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 Acalanes High, 1.0% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 1.7% qualify for free lunches.

This means Acalanes High has a very low poverty level. Nearly no students at Acalanes High qualify for free or reduced price lunches. Lafayette is thus likely to have a very affluent community, and Acalanes High is in the top 10% of California schools in terms of family income.

	Number	Percent
Reduced-price lunches	14	1.0%
Free lunches	24	1.7%
Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches	1304	97.1%

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

Because Acalanes 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 Acalanes 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.

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School Safety

How safe is Acalanes 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 Acalanes 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 Acalanes High students at risk.

In the school year of 2011-2012, there were 11 referrals to law enforcement (6 male, 5 female), and 0 school-related arrests. This is out of a total enrollment of 1383 students.

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

This means that 0.7 Acalanes High 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 Acalanes High School significantly different from other schools in the area? It could be that Acalanes 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:

Acalanes Union High School District Safety

School Name	Total Referred	Enrollment
Campolindo High	6	1284
Las Lomas High	15	1486
Miramonte High	6	1184
Acalanes Center For Independent Study	0	51

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

We've compiled everything we could find about Acalanes 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 Acalanes 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 Acalanes High, 98% (of 323) Acalanes 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%.

Acalanes High is in the 99th percentile of all public high schools in California for graduation rate. This is extremely good. 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 Acalanes 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 Acalanes High School SAT scores.

The average composite SAT score is a 1770 out of 2400, compared to a national average of 1500. Each year, roughly 362 at Acalanes High take the SAT.

This is a very high average SAT score, putting Acalanes High School in the top 10% of all California high schools. The average student at Acalanes High is already scoring in the 75th percentile nationwide or higher - in fact, 85% of students score above the national average. The top students will likely be competing in the top tier nationwide.

Because the SAT measures academic ability, this is a good sign that you're surrounded by high-achieving peers. If you can keep up with your classmates at Acalanes High - or even exceed them - you'll have a great shot at getting into very competitive colleges.

Here's a breakdown of SAT scores by section:

Average SAT Scores (2013-2014)

Source	Critical Reading	Math	Writing	Composite
Acalanes High	584	602	590	1770
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 1770 as an SAT score? Find out with our complete 1770 SAT score guide, including which colleges you can get into with a 1770 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 Acalanes High School ACT scores with the rest of the country.

At Acalanes High, the average ACT composite score was 27, compared to the nationwide average of 20. Each year, roughly 121 out of 1319 total students take the ACT.

This is excellent performance, putting Acalanes High in the top 5% of high schools in California by ACT score. Most students who take the ACT here are scoring well above average and in the top tier of the nation.

Since the ACT is meant to gauge what you learn in school, very high average ACT scores are a good indication that you'll get a high-quality education at Acalanes High and be surrounded by other high-achieving students.

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

Average ACT Scores

Source	English	Math	Reading	Science
Acalanes High	27	28	27	26
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 Acalanes 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 427 students in grades 9-12 at Acalanes High take 724 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 Acalanes High is 4.0 out of 5.

This is a great achievement showing well above average performance. Most students get AP scores of a 4 or a 5, placing them above the national average of a 3. This high academic achievement places Acalanes High School in the top 10% of schools for AP tests.

Acalanes High therefore has a strong AP program, with high quality classes that will prepare students well for AP exams. There is still a sizable number of students who earn a 3 or below, but if you're a motivated and resourceful student, you'll be able to be one of the top performers.

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 Acalanes 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 Acalanes High, there is a total enrollment of 522 in AP courses (a student taking more than one AP course counts more than once).

Of AP-taking students, 438 took AP tests for ALL AP courses. 21 students took AP tests for SOME AP Courses, and 30 took AP courses but took NO tests.

This is good test participation. Most AP students at Acalanes High School take the AP test for every one of their AP courses, outnumbering the students who take some or no AP exams. This is a good sign that students feel confident enough to take tests for all AP courses available to them, which reflects well on the teachers and course material. Acalanes High can continue to improve by reducing the number of students who take AP exams for some or none of their courses, but it's in a good state.

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 Acalanes 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, 411 students passed every AP test they took, which is a fantastic job. 18 students passed some but not all AP exams, and 34 students didn't pass ANY AP exam they took.

This is very strong performance. The majority of Acalanes High School students pass ALL the AP tests they take - an impressive feat, especially if students take multiple AP exams each year!

Overall, this points to a strong AP program at Acalanes High: across all AP course offerings, teachers are able to prepare students well for the exam. There are still some students who fail some or all of their exams, but this is a good starting point to improve from. You'll have a strong foundation to learn from throughout high school.

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

English/Language Arts

At Acalanes High School, 82% of students meet or exceed state standards in English/Language Arts.

This is considered very good and puts Acalanes High in the top 10% of all high schools in California for English/Language Arts. Most Acalanes High students pass or exceed state standards, and many of them are likely well above average.

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 Acalanes High School, 74% of students meet or exceed state standards in Math. This is considered well below average and puts Acalanes High in the bottom 25% of all high schools in California. The vast majority of Acalanes 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 Acalanes 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 Acalanes 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 Acalanes High. Taking AP/IB classes also raises your weighted GPA and makes you a stronger college applicant.

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

AP Courses

Acalanes High School offers AP courses in 14 subjects.

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

Course Title
Biology
Calculus AB
Calculus BC
Chemistry
Chinese Language and Culture
Comparative Government and Politics
Computer Science A
English Literature and Composition
Environmental Science
European History
French Language and Culture
Spanish Language and Culture
Statistics
United States History

Sports Teams

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

By the way, the Acalanes High mascot is the Dons. Go Dons!

Acalanes High School fields 16 teams for girls' sports. This is a sizable number that puts Acalanes High in the top 50% of California schools that offer girls' sports. You won't get the full range of sports and levels, but you'll be able to try out for a few options. If you participate in a sport that Acalanes High doesn't offer, consider looking for a local non-school team that you can join.

And now for the boys: Acalanes High School fields 22 teams for boys' sports. This puts Acalanes High in the top 25% of California schools that offer boys' sports. Boys will have a large pick of sports to try out for.

Boys Teams	Girls Teams
Lacrosse Var JV Fr	Lacrosse Var JV Fr
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
Waterpolo Var JV Fr	Waterpolo Var JV Fr
Crosscountry 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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