Location: North Highlands, CA
Are you a student or parent at Creative Connections Arts Academy? Want to understand how to get the most out of high school?
We've written the best guide to Creative Connections Arts Academy available. Here we'll cover:
- Breakdowns of student ethnicity, gender, and family income
- How safe Creative Connections Arts Academy is to attend
- SAT/ACT/AP scores earned by Creative Connections Arts Academy students
- Which AP/IB classes you can take at Creative Connections Arts Academy
- Every sports team you can join at Creative Connections Arts Academy
Let's get started!
Basic Information
Creative Connections Arts Academy is a public school, supporting grades 0 to 12 . It's located in North Highlands, CA in Sacramento County.
Based on its location, Creative Connections Arts Academy is classified as a school in a large suburb. Here's the location on a map:
Contact Information
Mailing address:
Creative Connections Arts Academy7201 Arutas Dr. North Highlands, CA 95660
Phone number: 9165661870
Creative Connections Arts Academy homepage: https://ccaahs-trusd-ca.schoolloop.com/
Principal: Rue AvantEmail the principal: [email protected]
Student Demographics
Student Enrollment
The total enrollment at Creative Connections Arts Academy is 648 students, making it a somewhat large high school, in the top half of all California high schools by size.
As a mid-sized high school, Creative Connections Arts Academy strikes the balance between size and comfort. There will be enough students to provide a diversity of experiences, like clubs and sports, for you to join. But it'll be small enough that you'll likely get to know most people in your class.
Growth in Student Body Size
Is Creative Connections Arts Academy growing or shrinking? This will help you see trends in where the school is headed.
From our calculations, the enrollment at Creative Connections Arts Academy 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9th grade | 17 | 30 | 47 |
| 10th grade | 22 | 17 | 39 |
| 11th grade | 14 | 21 | 35 |
| 12th grade | 13 | 13 | 26 |
As you can see in the table above, the freshman class is 21 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 North Highlands could be growing in population, thus sending more students into Creative Connections Arts Academy. Alternatively, Creative Connections Arts Academy could be relaxing its student policies and taking in more students.
Gender Split
Are there more boys or girls at Creative Connections Arts Academy?
From our statistics, Creative Connections Arts Academy has a 45:55 split between male and female students in the high school grades.
Creative Connections Arts Academy has a balanced male-female ratio that's largely representative of the general population in Sacramento 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 Creative Connections Arts Academy 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 Creative Connections Arts Academy? Does one ethnicity make up most of the student body, or is it fairly balanced?
From our statistics, Creative Connections Arts Academy 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 Creative Connections Arts Academy 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 | 1.3% | 9 |
| Asian | 2.9% | 19 |
| Hispanic | 31.6% | 205 |
| Black | 11.1% | 72 |
| White | 46.7% | 303 |
| Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander | 1.2% | 8 |
| Two or more races | 4.9% | 32 |
High schools usually reflect the population in the surrounding area, so the ethnicities of students likely resembles those of North Highlands. 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 Creative Connections Arts Academy Families
What are the family incomes of students at Creative Connections Arts Academy? 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 Creative Connections Arts Academy, 12.9% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 52.0% qualify for free lunches.
This means Creative Connections Arts Academy has a moderate percentage of students at or near poverty. About half of all schools in California show this level of poverty or greater. The income level of families in North Highlands is likely to be relatively low.
| Number | Percent | |
|---|---|---|
| Reduced-price lunches | 84 | 12.9% |
| Free lunches | 337 | 52.0% |
| Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches | 227 | 35.0% |
As with ethnicity, this likely reflects the surrounding community in North Highlands and doesn't speak much about the school itself.
Creative Connections Arts Academy 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. Creative Connections Arts Academy 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 Creative Connections Arts Academy doesn't cover, look to your local community for activities, or to the Internet for self-study AP classes.
Download our free guide on the top 5 strategies you must be using to improve your score. This guide was written by Harvard graduates and SAT perfect scorers. If you apply the strategies in this guide, you'll study smarter and make huge score improvements.
School Safety
How safe is Creative Connections Arts Academy 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 Creative Connections Arts Academy: 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 Creative Connections Arts Academy 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 605 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:
Twin Rivers Unified School District Safety
| School Name | Total Referred | Total Arrests | Enrollment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foothill High | 62 | 6 | 353 |
| Grant Union High | 0 | 0 | 2026 |
| Highlands High | 61 | 0 | 880 |
| Rio Linda High | 0 | 0 | 1843 |
| Elwood J. Keema High | 2 | 0 | 730 |
| Pacific Career And Technology High | 0 | 0 | 131 |
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 Creative Connections Arts Academy? Will you be competitive for college? Will you have access to advanced classes?
We've compiled everything we could find about Creative Connections Arts Academy's academics here.
Standardized Testing
Next, we'll look at another major piece of high school academics: standardized testing performance for Creative Connections Arts Academy students. These are tests that are administered to large populations of students for comparison purposes.
State Tests
As of 2014, eleventh graders attending Creative Connections Arts Academy 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 Creative Connections Arts Academy 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 Creative Connections Arts Academy.
English/Language Arts
At Creative Connections Arts Academy, 69% of students meet or exceed state standards in English/Language Arts.
This is considered good and puts Creative Connections Arts Academy in the top 25% of all high schools in California for English/Language Arts. Most Creative Connections Arts Academy students pass or exceed state standards, though there is also a sizable portion of students who fail to meet state standards.
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 Creative Connections Arts Academy, 31% of students meet or exceed state standards in Math. This is considered well below average and puts Creative Connections Arts Academy in the bottom 25% of all high schools in California. The vast majority of Creative Connections Arts Academy 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.
Academic Offerings
In addition to the standard high school curriculum, many high schools like Creative Connections Arts Academy offer advanced coursework as part of the Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) programs.
Brief Intro to AP/IB
AP and IB courses are designed at the difficulty level of college introductory classes. There are several important benefits to taking advanced coursework at Creative Connections Arts Academy. First, taking more advanced classes shows colleges that you're committed to challenging yourself academically, and that you're one of the more advanced students at Creative Connections Arts Academy. Taking AP/IB classes also raises your weighted GPA and makes you a stronger college applicant.
Furthermore, many colleges will accept your Creative Connections Arts Academy AP/IB coursework as college coursework. In some cases, you'll be able to skip introductory-level classes and move to more advanced classes. In other cases, you'll be able to avoid having to take required courses and might even be able to graduate earlier than the standard 4 years. Often this will require you to pass the AP test, getting a score of 3 or above.
So what advanced courses does Creative Connections Arts Academy offer?
AP Courses
Creative Connections Arts Academy offers AP courses in 2 subjects.
This is a low number of AP subjects, putting Creative Connections Arts Academy in the bottom 25% of California schools offering AP courses. You'll be very limited in your ability to explore your interests in math, science, humanities, or social sciences at Creative Connections Arts Academy.
Take a look at every AP subject offered. If you want to take any AP courses not being offered at Creative Connections Arts Academy, ask your counselor for ideas on how to cover the gap. If you're a strong student and not feeling adequately challenged, you might consider transferring to another high school to access a more advanced curriculum.
Of course, keep in mind that even though Creative Connections Arts Academy doesn't offer many AP courses, it might teach the few it does offer quite well. You can see student performance in the AP score analysis section above.
The following AP courses were offered at Creative Connections Arts Academy during 2015-2016:
| Course Title |
|---|
| Biology |
| English Language and Composition |
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
- California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) System Results
- IBO.org