Butte Valley High School: Full Guide

Location: Dorris, CA

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

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

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

Let's get started!

Basic Information

Butte Valley High School is a public school, supporting grades 9 to 12 . It's located in Dorris, CA in Siskiyou County.

Based on its location, Butte Valley 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:

Butte Valley High School
Po Box 709
Dorris, CA 96023-0728

Phone number: 5303973990

Butte Valley High School homepage: http://www.bvalusd.org/

Principal: Edward Brown
Email the principal: [email protected]

Student Demographics

Student Enrollment

The total enrollment at Butte Valley High School is 87 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, Butte Valley 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 Butte Valley High lacking for your interests, consider looking to your local community to supplement your interests.

Growth in Student Body Size

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

From our calculations, the enrollment at Butte Valley High has steadily 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	15	11	26
10^th grade	9	15	24
11^th grade	12	7	19
12^th grade	8	10	18

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 Dorris could be growing in population, thus sending more students into Butte Valley High. Alternatively, Butte Valley High could be relaxing its student policies and taking in more students.

Gender Split

Are there more boys or girls at Butte Valley High School?

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

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

From our statistics, Butte Valley 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 Butte Valley 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 Butte Valley 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 Butte Valley High is one of hundreds of schools in the state that have a majority of white students.

	Percentage	Number
American Indian/Alaska Native	4.5%	4
Asian	0.0%	0
Hispanic	41.3%	36
Black	0.0%	0
White	51.7%	45
Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander	0.0%	0
Two or more races	2.2%	2

High schools usually reflect the population in the surrounding area, so the ethnicities of students likely resembles those of Dorris. 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 Butte Valley High Families

What are the family incomes of students at Butte Valley 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 Butte Valley High, 6.8% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 50.5% qualify for free lunches.

This means Butte Valley High has a below average level of poverty. With most students not qualifying for free or reduced price lunches, Butte Valley High is below average among California schools in poverty level. The income level of families in Dorris is thus likely to be relatively high.

	Number	Percent
Reduced-price lunches	6	6.8%
Free lunches	44	50.5%
Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches	37	42.5%

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

Butte Valley High is in the middle 50% of schools by income level. Generally, higher income level schools are better-funded and have a higher quality range of classes and activities. Butte Valley High is likely in the middle of the pack in this regard and will give you a good set of options to try.

If you have any interests that Butte Valley High doesn't cover, look to your local community for activities, or to the Internet for self-study AP classes.

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School Safety

How safe is Butte Valley 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 Butte Valley 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 Butte Valley High students at risk.

In the school year of 2011-2012, there were 4 referrals to law enforcement (4 male, 0 female), and 0 school-related arrests. This is out of a total enrollment of 75 students.

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

This means that 5.3 Butte Valley High has minor safety issues. For every 100 students, there were just 5.3 law-enforcement related actions, but this is still higher than 75% of California schools.

With this record, is Butte Valley High School significantly different from other schools in the area? It could be that Butte Valley 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:

Butte Valley Unified School District Safety

School Name	Total Referred	Total Arrests	Enrollment
Cascade High	0	0	4

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

We've compiled everything we could find about Butte Valley High's academics here.

Standardized Testing

Next, we'll look at another major piece of high school academics: standardized testing performance for Butte Valley 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 Butte Valley 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 Butte Valley 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 Butte Valley High is out of 5.

Compared to schools across California, this score puts Butte Valley 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 Butte Valley 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 Butte Valley 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 Butte Valley 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 Butte Valley 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 Butte Valley 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 Butte Valley High.

English/Language Arts

At Butte Valley High School, 43% of students meet or exceed state standards in English/Language Arts.

This is considered below average and puts Butte Valley High in the bottom 50% of all high schools in California for English/Language Arts. The majority of Butte Valley High students do not pass state standards, and only a small percentage pass.

This specific percentage isn't much cause for concern - because the Common Core is new, the pass rate at Butte Valley High will likely rise over time. But it still reflects Butte Valley High's below average 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 Butte Valley High School, 5% of students meet or exceed state standards in Math. This is considered well below average and puts Butte Valley High in the bottom 25% of all high schools in California. The vast majority of Butte Valley 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

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

By the way, the Butte Valley High mascot is the Bulldogs. Go Bulldogs!

Butte Valley High School fields 5 teams for girls' sports. This is a low number that puts Butte Valley High in the bottom 25% of California schools that offer girls' sports. This is understandable - sports teams are expensive to support, and many schools would rather support other programs with their limited resources. If you play a sport that Butte Valley High doesn't field a team for, consider joining a local non-school team to get practice and compete.

And now for the boys: Butte Valley High School fields 7 teams for boys' sports. This low number puts Butte Valley High in the bottom 25% of California schools that offer boys' sports. If you play a sport that Butte Valley High doesn't field a team for, consider joining a local non-school team to get practice and compete.

Boys Teams	Girls Teams
Basketball Var JV Fr	Basketball 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
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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