Mark Keppel High School: Full Guide

Location: Alhambra, CA

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

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

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

Let's get started!

Basic Information

Mark Keppel High School is a public school, supporting grades 9 to 12 . It's located in Alhambra, CA in Los Angeles County.

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

Contact Information

Mailing address:

Mark Keppel High School
501 E. Hellman Ave.
Alhambra, CA 91801-5716

Phone number: 6269436700

Mark Keppel High School homepage: http://www.mkhs.org/

Principal: Jas Cisneros
Email the principal: [email protected]

Student Demographics

Student Enrollment

The total enrollment at Mark Keppel High School is 2356 students, making it a very large high school, in the top 10% of all California high schools by size.

Wow! Attending Mark Keppel High might feel like attending a college. You'll be surrounded by a large group of students (over 500 per class) and have more options for activities and clubs to join, which can be exciting.

On the other hand, you may also find that resources like counseling are spread thin across so many students. Make sure that you can get enough teacher and counselor attention to succeed at Mark Keppel High, which may require being proactive.

Growth in Student Body Size

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

From our calculations, the enrollment at Mark Keppel 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
9^th grade	282	281	563
10^th grade	289	281	570
11^th grade	333	300	633
12^th grade	274	316	590

As you can see in the table above, the senior class is 27 students larger than the freshman class. This suggests that Mark Keppel High is shrinking in size and taking on fewer students.

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

Gender Split

Are there more boys or girls at Mark Keppel High School?

From our statistics, Mark Keppel High has a 50:50 split between male and female students in the high school grades.

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

From our statistics, Mark Keppel 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 Mark Keppel High does. When attending class, most students will be of the same ethnicity, with some variation.

The majority of students at Mark Keppel High are Asian. Across all of California, Asian students make up 11.5% of enrollment, but it's rare for a school to be majority Asian. Thus Mark Keppel High is notable in California for having such a strong Asian presence.

	Percentage	Number
American Indian/Alaska Native	0.0%	2
Asian	71.6%	1688
Hispanic	23.3%	550
Black	0.3%	8
White	1.2%	30
Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander	0.0%	1
Two or more races	3.2%	77

High schools usually reflect the population in the surrounding area, so the ethnicities of students likely resembles those of Alhambra. 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 Mark Keppel High Families

What are the family incomes of students at Mark Keppel 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 Mark Keppel High, 12.0% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 46.6% qualify for free lunches.

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

	Number	Percent
Reduced-price lunches	283	12.0%
Free lunches	1100	46.6%
Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches	973	41.2%

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

Mark Keppel 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. Mark Keppel 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 Mark Keppel 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 Mark Keppel 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 Mark Keppel 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 Mark Keppel High students at risk.

In the school year of 2011-2012, there were 2 referrals to law enforcement (0 male, 2 female), and 0 school-related arrests. This is out of a total enrollment of 2509 students.

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

This means that 0.0 Mark Keppel High is very safe and belongs to the majority of schools with a perfect law-enforcement related record. This doesn't rule out that there are still students with disruptive behavior, but historically there isn't strong precedent for getting law enforcement involved.

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

Alhambra Unified School District Safety

School Name	Total Referred	Total Arrests	Enrollment
Century High	0	0	186
Alhambra High	2	2	2893
San Gabriel High	4	4	2382
Independence High (alternative)	0	0	74

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

We've compiled everything we could find about Mark Keppel 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 Mark Keppel 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 Mark Keppel High, 92% (of 548) Mark Keppel 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%.

Mark Keppel High is in the 78th percentile of all public high schools in California for graduation rate. This is well 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 Mark Keppel 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 Mark Keppel High School SAT scores.

The average composite SAT score is a 1640 out of 2400, compared to a national average of 1500. Each year, roughly 601 at Mark Keppel High take the SAT.

This is an above-average SAT score, putting Mark Keppel High School in the top 25% of all California high schools and well above the national average (68% of students score above the national average). This is a notable academic achievement that distinguishes Mark Keppel High as a high-achieving school.

This is a good indication that you'll receive an above-average education at Mark Keppel High. While your school isn't in the very top echelon of all California public schools, you're still in a great environment.

Here's a breakdown of SAT scores by section:

Average SAT Scores (2013-2014)

Source	Critical Reading	Math	Writing	Composite
Mark Keppel High	520	598	523	1640
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 1640 as an SAT score? Find out with our complete 1640 SAT score guide, including which colleges you can get into with a 1640 or any other SAT score!

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ACT Scores

In California, the ACT is less popular than the SAT. Fewer students take the ACT, and typically these students are more motivated and academically prepared for college. Therefore, it's harder to compare Mark Keppel High School ACT scores with the rest of the country.

At Mark Keppel High, the average ACT composite score was 24, compared to the nationwide average of 20. Each year, roughly 148 out of 2356 total students take the ACT.

This is very good performance, putting Mark Keppel High in the top 25% of high schools in California by ACT score. Nationwide, a 24 on the ACT is 74th percentile, so most ACT test takers at Mark Keppel High are well above average.

Since the ACT is designed to gauge what you learn in school, high ACT scores are are a good indication that you'll get a great education and be surrounded by other students who value academic achievements.

Here are the average English, Math, Reading, and Science scores for Mark Keppel High compared to California and the US:

Average ACT Scores

Source	English	Math	Reading	Science
Mark Keppel High	24	28	24	23
California	21.8	22.8	22.3	21.7
United States	20.3	20.9	21.3	20.8

Scores provided are for the 2013-14 school year.

Find out more about percentile rankings and the ACT in this article.

Every individual is different. What counts as a good ACT score for you? Learn more with this article!

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Advanced Placement (AP)

Advanced Placement (AP) classes are college-level courses that are an additional academic challenge may give Mark Keppel 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 620 students in grades 9-12 at Mark Keppel High take 1114 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 Mark Keppel High is 3.6 out of 5.

This is a great achievement showing well above average performance. Most students get AP scores of a 4 or a 5, placing them above the national average of a 3. This high academic achievement places Mark Keppel High School in the top 10% of schools for AP tests.

Mark Keppel High therefore has a strong AP program, with high quality classes that will prepare students well for AP exams. There is still a sizable number of students who earn a 3 or below, but if you're a motivated and resourceful student, you'll be able to be one of the top performers.

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 Mark Keppel 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.

At Mark Keppel High, there is a total enrollment of 540 in AP courses (a student taking more than one AP course counts more than once).

Of AP-taking students, 528 took AP tests for ALL AP courses. 9 students took AP tests for SOME AP Courses, and 11 took AP courses but took NO tests.

This is good test participation. Most AP students at Mark Keppel High School take the AP test for every one of their AP courses, outnumbering the students who take some or no AP exams. This is a good sign that students feel confident enough to take tests for all AP courses available to them, which reflects well on the teachers and course material. Mark Keppel High can continue to improve by reducing the number of students who take AP exams for some or none of their courses, but it's in a good state.

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 Mark Keppel 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.

Of all AP test takers, 354 students passed every AP test they took, which is a fantastic job. 60 students passed some but not all AP exams, and 112 students didn't pass ANY AP exam they took.

This is very strong performance. The majority of Mark Keppel High School students pass ALL the AP tests they take - an impressive feat, especially if students take multiple AP exams each year!

Overall, this points to a strong AP program at Mark Keppel High: across all AP course offerings, teachers are able to prepare students well for the exam. There are still some students who fail some or all of their exams, but this is a good starting point to improve from. You'll have a strong foundation to learn from throughout high school.

To find out the passing rates for specific AP courses at Mark Keppel 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 Mark Keppel 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 Mark Keppel 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 Mark Keppel High.

English/Language Arts

At Mark Keppel High School, 77% of students meet or exceed state standards in English/Language Arts.

This is considered good and puts Mark Keppel High in the top 25% of all high schools in California for English/Language Arts. Most Mark Keppel High 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 Mark Keppel High School, 67% of students meet or exceed state standards in Math. This is considered well below average and puts Mark Keppel High in the bottom 25% of all high schools in California. The vast majority of Mark Keppel 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.

Academic Offerings

In addition to the standard high school curriculum, many high schools like Mark Keppel High School 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 Mark Keppel High. 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 Mark Keppel High. Taking AP/IB classes also raises your weighted GPA and makes you a stronger college applicant.

Furthermore, many colleges will accept your Mark Keppel High 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 Mark Keppel High School offer?

AP Courses

Mark Keppel High School offers AP courses in 22 subjects.

This is a huge number of AP subjects, putting Mark Keppel High School in the top 5% of California schools in AP offerings. You'll be able to choose from the most popular AP courses as well as your pick of broader interests.

The total number of AP subjects is 38, so Mark Keppel High is missing some subjects, but these are likely the least popular subjects, like some foreign languages and the new AP Research and Seminar courses. If there are any AP courses you want to take that aren't being offered at Mark Keppel High, ask your counselor for other options.

Of course, keep in mind that quantity doesn't automatically mean quality - it's important that the courses are taught well by effective teachers. But the strong AP program at Mark Keppel High likely means the classes are of high quality.

The following AP courses were offered at Mark Keppel High during 2015-2016:

Course Title
Art History
Biology
Calculus AB
Calculus BC
Chemistry
Chinese Language and Culture
English Language and Composition
English Literature and Composition
Environmental Science
French Language and Culture
Human Geography
Macroeconomics
Physics 1: Algebra-Based
Physics 2: Algebra-Based
Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism
Physics C: Mechanics
Psychology
Spanish Language and Culture
Spanish Literature and Culture
Statistics
United States History
World History

Sports Teams

Finally, we'll cover which sports teams are available at Mark Keppel 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 Mark Keppel High.

By the way, the Mark Keppel High mascot is the Aztecs. Go Aztecs!

Mark Keppel High School fields 21 teams for girls' sports. This is an impressively high number that puts Mark Keppel High in the top 10% of California schools that offer girls' sports. If you're a female, you'll have plenty of options of sports and levels to try out for. Furthermore, schools that offer more teams typically have a strong sports culture and field competitive teams.

And now for the boys: Mark Keppel High School fields 22 teams for boys' sports. This puts Mark Keppel High in the top 25% of California schools that offer boys' sports. Boys will have a large pick of sports to try out for.

Boys Teams	Girls Teams
Basketball Var JV Fr	Basketball Var JV Fr
Tennis Var JV Fr	Tennis 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
Waterpolo Var JV Fr	Waterpolo Var JV Fr
Trackfield Var JV Fr	Trackfield Var JV Fr
Crosscountry Var JV Fr	Crosscountry Var JV Fr
Soccer Var JV Fr	Soccer Var JV Fr
	Fieldhockey 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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