Golden Sierra Jr/Sr High School: Full Guide

Location: Garden Valley, CA

Are you a student or parent at Golden Sierra Jr/Sr High School? Want to understand how to get the most out of high school?

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

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

Let's get started!

Basic Information

Golden Sierra Jr/Sr High School is a public school, supporting grades 7 to 12 . It's located in Garden Valley, CA in El Dorado County.

Based on its location, Golden Sierra High is classified as a school in a distant rural area, somewhat far from an urbanized area. Here's the location on a map:

Contact Information

Mailing address:

Golden Sierra Jr/Sr High School
5101 Garden Valley Rd.
Garden Valley, CA 95633-0175

Phone number: 5303338330

Golden Sierra Jr/Sr High School homepage: https://gshs-bomusd-ca.schoolloop.com/

Principal: Rebecca Evers
Email the principal: [email protected]

Student Demographics

Student Enrollment

The total enrollment at Golden Sierra Jr/Sr High School is 563 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, Golden Sierra High 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 Golden Sierra Jr/Sr High School growing or shrinking? This will help you see trends in where the school is headed.

From our calculations, the enrollment at Golden Sierra High has decreased over the past few years. We calculate this by comparing enrollment in grades 9 to 12.

	Male Students	Female Students	All Students
9th grade	46	49	95
10th grade	50	44	94
11th grade	53	45	98
12th grade	55	57	112

As you can see in the table above, the senior class is 17 students larger than the freshman class. This suggests that Golden Sierra High is shrinking in size and taking on fewer students.

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

Gender Split

Are there more boys or girls at Golden Sierra Jr/Sr High School?

From our statistics, Golden Sierra High has a 52:48 split between male and female students in the high school grades.

Golden Sierra High has a balanced male-female ratio that's largely representative of the general population in El Dorado 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 Golden Sierra 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 Golden Sierra Jr/Sr High School? Does one ethnicity make up most of the student body, or is it fairly balanced?

From our statistics, Golden Sierra High has a homogenous student body, with the overwhelming majority of students identifying as one ethnicity. Only a third of California schools show as little diversity as Golden Sierra High does. When attending class, most students will be of the same ethnicity, with some variation.

The majority of students at Golden Sierra 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 Golden Sierra High is one of hundreds of schools in the state that have a majority of white students.

	Percentage	Number
American Indian/Alaska Native	1.7%	10
Asian	1.4%	8
Hispanic	8.3%	47
Black	0.7%	4
White	87.3%	492
Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander	0.1%	1
Two or more races	0.1%	1

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

What are the family incomes of students at Golden Sierra Jr/Sr 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 Golden Sierra High, 7.6% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 33.3% qualify for free lunches.

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

	Number	Percent
Reduced-price lunches	43	7.6%
Free lunches	188	33.3%
Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches	332	58.9%

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

Golden Sierra 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. Golden Sierra 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 Golden Sierra High doesn't cover, look to your local community for activities, or to the Internet for self-study AP classes.

School Safety

How safe is Golden Sierra Jr/Sr 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 Golden Sierra 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 Golden Sierra High students at risk.

With this record, is Golden Sierra Jr/Sr High School significantly different from other schools in the area? It could be that Golden Sierra 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:

Black Oak Mine Unified School District Safety

School Name	Total Referred	Total Arrests	Enrollment
Divide High	2	0	27
American River Charter	0	0	179

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 Golden Sierra Jr/Sr High School? Will you be competitive for college? Will you have access to advanced classes?

We've compiled everything we could find about Golden Sierra High's academics here.

Standardized Testing

Next, we'll look at another major piece of high school academics: standardized testing performance for Golden Sierra Jr/Sr 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.

SAT Scores

As you probably know, the SAT is a critical test used for college admissions. The higher the score you get, the better your academic performance compared to students nationwide, and the easier it is to get into top colleges.

We did in-depth research and found the average Golden Sierra Jr/Sr High School SAT scores.

Here's a breakdown of SAT scores by section:

Average SAT Scores (2013-2014)

Source	Critical Reading	Math	Writing	Composite
Golden Sierra High	524	524	496	1540
California	498	510	496	1504
United States	495	511	484	1490

Note that the SAT has since changed to a 1600 scale, but the trends above for your high school are likely to continue. Just use this guide to convert between the old 2400 scale and the new 1600 scale.

To learn more about SAT percentile rankings, read our guide on what SAT percentiles really mean.

How good is 1540 as an SAT score? Find out with our complete 1540 SAT score guide, including which colleges you can get into with a 1540 or any other SAT score!

Advanced Placement (AP)

Advanced Placement (AP) classes are college-level courses that are an additional academic challenge may give Golden Sierra Jr/Sr 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 32 students in grades 9-12 at Golden Sierra High take 47 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.

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:

AP Test-Taking Statistics

Another way to gauge the quality of a school's AP program is to see how many AP students actually took AP exams at Golden Sierra Jr/Sr High School. If a lot of students enroll in AP courses but don't actually take the AP tests, it can be a sign that students don't feel adequately prepared to take the test, or the school isn't encouraging students to take the exams enough.

Note: The most recent data we have available is from 2012, so the statistics may have changed since then. Most likely, however, the trends are likely to continue - above average schools are likely to stay above average, and below average schools are likely to stay below average.

AP Passing Rates

For AP students at Golden Sierra Jr/Sr High School who take the exam, it's important to know how they do. Here we have specific data on how many students got a passing grade (a 3 or above) on all, some, or none of the AP exams that they took.