Bishop Independent Study School: Full Guide

Location: Big Pine, CA

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

We've written the best guide to Bishop Independent Study School available. Here we'll cover:

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

Let's get started!

Basic Information

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

Based on its location, Bishop Independent Study School 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:

Bishop Independent Study School
Po Box 998
Big Pine, CA 93513

Phone number: 7609382001

Bishop Independent Study School homepage: https://pghs-bishop-ca.schoolloop.com/BIS

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

Student Demographics

Student Enrollment

The total enrollment at Bishop Independent Study School is 25 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 Bishop Independent Study School 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 Bishop Independent Study School, 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 Bishop Independent Study School growing or shrinking? This will help you see trends in where the school is headed.

From our calculations, the enrollment at Bishop Independent Study School 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
9^th grade	0	1	1
10^th grade	1	3	4
11^th grade	3	3	6
12^th grade	5	9	14

As you can see in the table above, the senior class is 13 students larger than the freshman class. This suggests that Bishop Independent Study School is shrinking in size and taking on fewer students.

There are a few reasons this can happen. The population of Big Pine could be decreasing, thus sending fewer students into Bishop Independent Study School. Alternatively, other schools (like charter or private schools) might be appearing, drawing students away.

Gender Split

Are there more boys or girls at Bishop Independent Study School?

From our statistics, Bishop Independent Study School has a 36:64 split between male and female students in the high school grades.

There is a large female majority at Bishop Independent Study School, and the imbalance is greater 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 Bishop Independent Study School. 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 Bishop Independent Study School. In yet other cases, other neighboring schools might attract male students, drawing them away from Bishop Independent Study School.

If this gender imbalance is a concern for you, we suggest contacting Bishop Independent Study School administration and asking if they have any thoughts about why there's a female majority. Their phone number is 7609382001.

Ethnicity Breakdown

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

From our statistics, Bishop Independent Study School 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 Bishop Independent Study School 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	8.0%	2
Asian	0.0%	0
Hispanic	32.0%	8
Black	8.0%	2
White	48.0%	12
Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander	0.0%	0
Two or more races	4.0%	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 Bishop Independent Study School Families

What are the family incomes of students at Bishop Independent Study 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 Bishop Independent Study School, 0.0% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 24.0% qualify for free lunches.

This means Bishop Independent Study School has a low poverty level. The overwhelming majority of students at Bishop Independent Study School don't qualify for free or reduced price lunches. Big Pine is thus likely to be an affluent community, with quite high family incomes.

	Number	Percent
Reduced-price lunches	0	0.0%
Free lunches	6	24.0%
Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches	19	76.0%

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

Because Bishop Independent Study School 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 Bishop Independent Study School 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 Bishop Independent Study 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 Bishop Independent Study School: 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 Bishop Independent Study School 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 24 students.

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

Compare this school with other high schools in the same school district, using the following table:

Bishop Unified School District Safety

School Name	Total Referred	Total Arrests	Enrollment
Bishop Union High	15	2	660
Keith B. Bright High (juvenile Hall)	0	0	4
Palisade Glacier High (continuation)	0	0	46
Community Day School Iii	0	0	4

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!

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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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