Boynton High School: Full Guide

Location: San Jose, CA

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

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

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

Let's get started!

Basic Information

Boynton High School is a public school, supporting grades 9 to 12 . It's located in San Jose, CA in Santa Clara County.

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

Contact Information

Mailing address:

Boynton High School
901 Boynton Ave.
San Jose, CA 95117-1927

Phone number: 4086263404

Boynton High School homepage: http://www.boynton.cuhsd.org/

Principal: Sarah Thomas
Email the principal: [email protected]

Student Demographics

Student Enrollment

The total enrollment at Boynton High School is 305 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, Boynton High 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 Boynton High lacking for your interests, consider looking to your local community to supplement your interests.

Growth in Student Body Size

Is Boynton High School growing or shrinking? This will help you see trends in where the school is headed.

From our calculations, the enrollment at Boynton High 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	0	0
10^th grade	1	5	6
11^th grade	35	57	92
12^th grade	118	89	207

As you can see in the table above, the senior class is 207 students larger than the freshman class. This suggests that Boynton High is shrinking in size and taking on fewer students.

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

Gender Split

Are there more boys or girls at Boynton High School?

From our statistics, Boynton High has a 51:49 split between male and female students in the high school grades.

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

From our statistics, Boynton 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 Boynton 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 Boynton High 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 Boynton High fits within this category.

	Percentage	Number
American Indian/Alaska Native	0.0%	0
Asian	7.5%	23
Hispanic	52.4%	160
Black	4.2%	13
White	30.4%	93
Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander	0.9%	3
Two or more races	4.2%	13

High schools usually reflect the population in the surrounding area, so the ethnicities of students likely resembles those of San Jose. 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 Boynton High Families

What are the family incomes of students at Boynton 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 Boynton High, 8.1% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 22.6% qualify for free lunches.

This means Boynton High has a low poverty level. The overwhelming majority of students at Boynton High don't qualify for free or reduced price lunches. San Jose is thus likely to be an affluent community, with quite high family incomes.

	Number	Percent
Reduced-price lunches	25	8.1%
Free lunches	69	22.6%
Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches	211	69.1%

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

Because Boynton 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 Boynton 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 Boynton 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 Boynton 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 Boynton 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 293 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:

Campbell Union High School District Safety

School Name	Total Referred	Total Arrests	Enrollment
Del Mar High	0	0	1172
Prospect High	0	0	1310
Westmont High	0	0	1654
Leigh High	0	0	1649
Branham High	0	0	1430
Camden Community Day	0	0	53

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

We've compiled everything we could find about Boynton 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 Boynton 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 Boynton High, 79% Boynton 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%.

Boynton High is in the 42nd percentile of all public high schools in California for graduation rate. This is below 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.

Standardized Testing

Next, we'll look at another major piece of high school academics: standardized testing performance for Boynton 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 Boynton 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 2 students in grades 9-12 at Boynton 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 Boynton High is out of 5.

Compared to schools across California, this score puts Boynton 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 Boynton 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 Boynton 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 Boynton 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 Boynton 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 Boynton 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 Boynton High.

English/Language Arts

At Boynton High School, 11% of students meet or exceed state standards in English/Language Arts.

This is considered well below average and puts Boynton High in the bottom 25% of all high schools in California for English/Language Arts. The vast majority of Boynton High students don't meet state standards, and only a small percentage pass.

This low percentage itself isn't much cause for concern - as teachers and students get more familiar with the new Common Core, the pass rate at Boynton High will likely increase. But it still reflects Boynton High's low standing 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 Boynton High School, 9% of students meet or exceed state standards in Math. This is considered well below average and puts Boynton High in the bottom 25% of all high schools in California. The vast majority of Boynton 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.

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.

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