Location: Bellflower, CA
Are you a student or parent at Bellflower Alternative Education Center? Want to understand how to get the most out of high school?
We've written the best guide to Bellflower Alternative Education Center available. Here we'll cover:
- Breakdowns of student ethnicity, gender, and family income
- How safe Bellflower Alternative Education Center is to attend
- SAT/ACT/AP scores earned by Bellflower Alternative Education Center students
- Which AP/IB classes you can take at Bellflower Alternative Education Center
- Every sports team you can join at Bellflower Alternative Education Center
Let's get started!
Basic Information
Bellflower Alternative Education Center is a public school, supporting grades 0 to 12 . It's located in Bellflower, CA in Los Angeles County.
Based on its location, Bellflower Alternative Education Center is classified as a school in a large suburb. Here's the location on a map:
Contact Information
Mailing address:
Bellflower Alternative Education Center16703 S. Clark Ave. Bellflower, CA 90706-7607
Phone number: 5628669011
Bellflower Alternative Education Center homepage: http://www.busd.k12.ca.us/
Principal: Patrick DixonEmail the principal: [email protected]
Student Demographics
Student Enrollment
The total enrollment at Bellflower Alternative Education Center is 29 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 Bellflower Alternative Education Center 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 Bellflower Alternative Education Center, 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 Bellflower Alternative Education Center growing or shrinking? This will help you see trends in where the school is headed.
From our calculations, the enrollment at Bellflower Alternative Education Center has increased over the past few years. We calculate this by comparing enrollment in grades 9 to 12.
| Male Students | Female Students | All Students | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9th grade | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 10th grade | 6 | 4 | 10 |
| 11th grade | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 12th grade | 1 | 0 | 1 |
As you can see in the table above, the freshman class is 1 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 Alternative Education Center. Alternatively, Bellflower Alternative Education Center could be relaxing its student policies and taking in more students.
Gender Split
Are there more boys or girls at Bellflower Alternative Education Center?
From our statistics, Bellflower Alternative Education Center has a 67:33 split between male and female students in the high school grades.
There is a large male majority at Bellflower Alternative Education Center, and much more than you would expect from the general population in Los Angeles 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 Bellflower Alternative Education Center. In other cases, the school might preferentially select for males. For example, in our data we find that continuation high schools unfortunately seem to be male-dominated. In yet other cases, other neighboring schools might attract female students, drawing them away from Bellflower Alternative Education Center.
If the male majority is concerning to you, we suggest contacting Bellflower Alternative Education Center administration and asking if they have any thoughts about why there's a gender imbalance. Their phone number is 5628669011.
Ethnicity Breakdown
What's the racial diversity at Bellflower Alternative Education Center? Does one ethnicity make up most of the student body, or is it fairly balanced?
From our statistics, Bellflower Alternative Education Center 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 Bellflower Alternative Education Center 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 Bellflower Alternative Education Center 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 Alternative Education Center fits within this category.
| Percentage | Number | |
|---|---|---|
| American Indian/Alaska Native | 0.0% | 0 |
| Asian | 3.4% | 1 |
| Hispanic | 51.7% | 15 |
| Black | 17.2% | 5 |
| White | 20.6% | 6 |
| Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander | 3.4% | 1 |
| Two or more races | 3.4% | 1 |
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 Alternative Education Center Families
What are the family incomes of students at Bellflower Alternative Education Center? 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 Alternative Education Center, 10.3% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 27.5% qualify for free lunches.
This means Bellflower Alternative Education Center has a low poverty level. The overwhelming majority of students at Bellflower Alternative Education Center don't qualify for free or reduced price lunches. Bellflower is thus likely to be an affluent community, with quite high family incomes.
| Number | Percent | |
|---|---|---|
| Reduced-price lunches | 3 | 10.3% |
| Free lunches | 8 | 27.5% |
| Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches | 18 | 62.0% |
As with ethnicity, this likely reflects the surrounding community in Bellflower and doesn't speak much about the school itself.
Because Bellflower Alternative Education Center 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 Bellflower Alternative Education Center 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 Bellflower Alternative Education Center 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 Alternative Education Center: 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 Alternative Education Center students at risk.
In the school year of 2011-2012, there were 14 referrals to law enforcement (12 male, 2 female), and 0 school-related arrests. This is out of a total enrollment of 45 students.
To put this into perspective, most California schools (59% of them) reported 0 law enforcement referrals and arrests.
This means that 31.1 Bellflower Alternative Education Center has major safety issues. For every 100 students, there were 31.1 law-enforcement related actions. This is a very high number that puts Bellflower Alternative Education Center in the top 10% of schools with disciplinary actions.
With this record, is Bellflower Alternative Education Center significantly different from other schools in the area? It could be that Bellflower Alternative Education Center 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 | Total Arrests | Enrollment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bellflower High | 12 | 0 | 2908 |
| Mayfair High | 24 | 0 | 3445 |
| Somerset Continuation High | 10 | 0 | 362 |
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 Alternative Education Center? Will you be competitive for college? Will you have access to advanced classes?
We've compiled everything we could find about Bellflower Alternative Education Center'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 Alternative Education Center, 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 Alternative Education Center, 85% Bellflower Alternative Education Center 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 Alternative Education Center is in the 56th percentile of all public high schools in California for graduation rate. This is 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.
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
- IBO.org