Big Pine High School: Full Guide

Location: Big Pine, CA

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

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

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

Let's get started!

Basic Information

Big Pine High School is a public school, supporting grades 9 to 12 . It's located in Big Pine, CA in Inyo County.

Based on its location, Big Pine 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:

Big Pine High School
Po Box 908
Big Pine, CA 93513-0908

Phone number: 7609382222

Big Pine High School homepage: http://bigpine.ca.schoolwebpages.com/education/components/layout/default.php?sectionid=1&url_redirect=1

Principal: Katie Kolker
Email the principal: [email protected]

Student Demographics

Student Enrollment

The total enrollment at Big Pine High School is 39 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 Big Pine 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 Big Pine 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 Big Pine High School growing or shrinking? This will help you see trends in where the school is headed.

From our calculations, the enrollment at Big Pine High has increased 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	8	7	15
10^th grade	6	1	7
11^th grade	4	6	10
12^th grade	4	3	7

As you can see in the table above, the freshman class is 8 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 Big Pine could be growing in population, thus sending more students into Big Pine High. Alternatively, Big Pine High could be relaxing its student policies and taking in more students.

Gender Split

Are there more boys or girls at Big Pine High School?

From our statistics, Big Pine High has a 57:43 split between male and female students in the high school grades.

There is a large male majority at Big Pine High, and much more than you would expect from the general population in Inyo 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 Big Pine High. 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 Big Pine High.

If the male majority is concerning to you, we suggest contacting Big Pine High administration and asking if they have any thoughts about why there's a gender imbalance. Their phone number is 7609382222.

Ethnicity Breakdown

What's the racial diversity at Big Pine High School? Does one ethnicity make up most of the student body, or is it fairly balanced?

From our statistics, Big Pine High 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 Big Pine High 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 Big Pine High are American Indian/Alaska Native. Across the state, only 0.7% of students identify as American Indian/Alaska Native, and only a few dozen schools have American Indian/Alaska Native students as the majority. This makes Big Pine High a special school in this regard.

	Percentage	Number
American Indian/Alaska Native	51.2%	20
Asian	0.0%	0
Hispanic	7.6%	3
Black	0.0%	0
White	38.4%	15
Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander	0.0%	0
Two or more races	2.5%	1

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

What are the family incomes of students at Big Pine 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 Big Pine High, 10.2% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 69.2% qualify for free lunches.

This means Big Pine High has a high percentage of students at or near poverty. Almost a third of all schools in California show this level of poverty, and by National Center for Education Statistics standards, Big Pine High can be classified as a high poverty school. The income level of families in Big Pine is thus likely to be low.

	Number	Percent
Reduced-price lunches	4	10.2%
Free lunches	27	69.2%
Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches	8	20.5%

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

Unfortunately, schools in areas of lower income levels are likely to be more poorly funded. As a result, they might feature less advanced coursework like AP/IB classes, and you may not have a full range of sports and extracurriculars to draw from. Because Big Pine High is an especially high poverty-level school, it might not have the resources you need to meet your full potential.

You definitely don't have control over the city, the school, or other families, but you can structure your own learning to be more productive. If you'd like to open yourself to more opportunities, you can look into whether it's possible to transfer to a nearby school with higher income levels.

If not, don't be alarmed - it's possible that Big Pine High has all that you need for your ambition. And you can definitely be proactive about learning outside of your school, looking to your community or to the Internet to find more resources.

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School Safety

How safe is Big Pine 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 Big Pine 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 Big Pine High students at risk.

In the school year of 2011-2012, there were 0 referrals to law enforcement, and 0 school-related arrests. This is out of a total enrollment of 51 students.

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

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

We've compiled everything we could find about Big Pine High's academics here.

Standardized Testing

Next, we'll look at another major piece of high school academics: standardized testing performance for Big Pine 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 Big Pine 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 1 students in grades 9-12 at Big Pine 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 Big Pine High is out of 5.

Compared to schools across California, this score puts Big Pine 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 Big Pine 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 Big Pine 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 Big Pine 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.

Sports Teams

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

By the way, the Big Pine High mascot is the Warriors. Go Warriors!

Big Pine High School fields 8 teams for girls' sports. This is a relatively number that puts Big Pine 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 Big Pine High doesn't offer, consider joining a local non-school team to get practice and compete.

And now for the boys: Big Pine High School fields 9 teams for boys' sports. This relatively number puts Big Pine High in the bottom 50% of California schools that offer boys' sports. Sports teams are expensive to support, and Big Pine High may not be able to offer the full range of options. If you participate in a sport that Big Pine 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
	Fieldhockey 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
Trackfield Var JV Fr	Trackfield Var JV Fr
Soccer Var JV Fr	Soccer Var JV Fr
	Tennis 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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