Island (Continuation) High School: Full Guide

Location: Alameda, CA

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

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

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

Let's get started!

Basic Information

Island (Continuation) High School is a public school, supporting grades 9 to 12 . It's located in Alameda, CA in Alameda County.

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

Contact Information

Mailing address:

Island (Continuation) High School
1900 Third St.
Alameda, CA 94501-1524

Phone number: 5107484024

Island (Continuation) High School homepage: http://ihs.alamedausd.ca.schoolloop.com/

Principal: Ben Washofsky
Email the principal: [email protected]

Student Demographics

Student Enrollment

The total enrollment at Island (Continuation) High School is 172 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, Island Continuation 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 Island Continuation High lacking for your interests, consider looking to your local community to supplement your interests.

Growth in Student Body Size

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

From our calculations, the enrollment at Island Continuation 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	2	1	3
11^th grade	18	12	30
12^th grade	75	64	139

As you can see in the table above, the senior class is 139 students larger than the freshman class. This suggests that Island Continuation High is shrinking in size and taking on fewer students.

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

Gender Split

Are there more boys or girls at Island (Continuation) High School?

From our statistics, Island Continuation High has a 56:44 split between male and female students in the high school grades.

There is a large male majority at Island Continuation High, and much more than you would expect from the general population in Alameda 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 Island Continuation High. In other cases, the school might preferentially select for males. For example, in our data we find that continuation high schools unfortunately seem to be male-dominated. In yet other cases, other neighboring schools might attract female students, drawing them away from Island Continuation High.

If the male majority is concerning to you, we suggest contacting Island Continuation High administration and asking if they have any thoughts about why there's a gender imbalance. Their phone number is 5107484024.

Ethnicity Breakdown

What's the racial diversity at Island (Continuation) High School? Does one ethnicity make up most of the student body, or is it fairly balanced?

From our statistics, Island Continuation High 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 Island Continuation High is Hispanic. In California, 51.5% of all students are Hispanic, making it the most common ethnicity. Even though Island Continuation High is relatively diverse, students of Hispanic descent are the most common ethnicity here.

	Percentage	Number
American Indian/Alaska Native	1.1%	2
Asian	15.1%	26
Hispanic	27.9%	48
Black	25.5%	44
White	23.8%	41
Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander	2.9%	5
Two or more races	3.4%	6

High schools usually reflect the population in the surrounding area, so the ethnicities of students likely resembles those of Alameda. 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 Island Continuation High Families

What are the family incomes of students at Island (Continuation) 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 Island Continuation High, 2.9% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 50.5% qualify for free lunches.

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

	Number	Percent
Reduced-price lunches	5	2.9%
Free lunches	87	50.5%
Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches	80	46.5%

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

Island Continuation 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. Island Continuation 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 Island Continuation 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 Island (Continuation) 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 Island Continuation 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 Island Continuation 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 179 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:

Alameda Unified School District Safety

School Name	Total Referred	Total Arrests	Enrollment
Alameda High	0	0	1855
Encinal High	0	0	1096
Alameda Community Learning Center	0	0	306
Bay Area School Of Enterprise	0	0	146
Alameda Science And Technology Institute	0	0	169
Nea Community Learning Center	0	0	0

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 Island (Continuation) High School? Will you be competitive for college? Will you have access to advanced classes?

We've compiled everything we could find about Island Continuation 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 Island Continuation 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 Island Continuation High, 84% Island Continuation 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%.

Island Continuation High is in the 52nd percentile of all public high schools in California for graduation rate. This is above 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 Island (Continuation) 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 Island (Continuation) 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 Island Continuation 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 Island Continuation High is out of 5.

Compared to schools across California, this score puts Island Continuation 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 Island (Continuation) 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 Island Continuation 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 Island (Continuation) 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 Island (Continuation) 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 Island Continuation 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 Island Continuation High.

English/Language Arts

At Island (Continuation) High School, 9% of students meet or exceed state standards in English/Language Arts.

This is considered well below average and puts Island Continuation High in the bottom 25% of all high schools in California for English/Language Arts. The vast majority of Island Continuation 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 Island Continuation High will likely increase. But it still reflects Island Continuation 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 Island (Continuation) High School, 0% of students meet or exceed state standards in Math. This is considered well below average and puts Island Continuation High in the bottom 25% of all high schools in California. The vast majority of Island Continuation 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?

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