Pacific Technology School Santa Ana: Full Guide

Location: Costa Mesa, CA

Are you a student or parent at Pacific Technology School Santa Ana? Want to understand how to get the most out of high school?

We've written the best guide to Pacific Technology School available. Here we'll cover:

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

Let's get started!

Basic Information

Pacific Technology School Santa Ana is a public school, supporting grades 6 to 12 . It's located in Costa Mesa, CA in Orange County.

Based on its location, Pacific Technology School is classified as a school in a midsized city. Here's the location on a map:

Contact Information

Mailing address:

Pacific Technology School Santa Ana
102 Baker St. E.
Costa Mesa, CA 92626-1612

Phone number: 7145577002

Pacific Technology School Santa Ana homepage: http://santaana.ptscharter.org

Principal: 0 0
Email the principal: 0

Student Demographics

Student Enrollment

The total enrollment at Pacific Technology School Santa Ana is 176 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, Pacific Technology School 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 Pacific Technology School lacking for your interests, consider looking to your local community to supplement your interests.

Growth in Student Body Size

Is Pacific Technology School Santa Ana growing or shrinking? This will help you see trends in where the school is headed.

From our calculations, the enrollment at Pacific Technology School has 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	11	9	20
10^th grade	11	4	15
11^th grade	4	3	7
12^th grade	5	5	10

As you can see in the table above, the freshman class is 10 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 Costa Mesa could be growing in population, thus sending more students into Pacific Technology School. Alternatively, Pacific Technology School could be relaxing its student policies and taking in more students.

Gender Split

Are there more boys or girls at Pacific Technology School Santa Ana?

From our statistics, Pacific Technology School has a 60:40 split between male and female students in the high school grades.

There is a large male majority at Pacific Technology School, and much more than you would expect from the general population in Orange 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 Pacific Technology School. 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 Pacific Technology School.

If the male majority is concerning to you, we suggest contacting Pacific Technology School administration and asking if they have any thoughts about why there's a gender imbalance. Their phone number is 7145577002.

Ethnicity Breakdown

What's the racial diversity at Pacific Technology School Santa Ana? Does one ethnicity make up most of the student body, or is it fairly balanced?

From our statistics, Pacific Technology School 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 Pacific Technology School 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 Pacific Technology School are Hispanic. In California, Hispanic students make up the majority of all students at 51.5%, and are thus the most common ethnicity. Predominantly Hispanic schools are the most common type of homogenous school, and Pacific Technology School fits within this category.

	Percentage	Number
American Indian/Alaska Native	0.0%	0
Asian	6.8%	12
Hispanic	52.8%	93
Black	0.5%	1
White	33.5%	59
Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander	0.0%	0
Two or more races	6.2%	11

High schools usually reflect the population in the surrounding area, so the ethnicities of students likely resembles those of Costa Mesa. 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 Pacific Technology School Families

What are the family incomes of students at Pacific Technology School Santa Ana? 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 Pacific Technology School, 13.0% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 34.6% qualify for free lunches.

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

	Number	Percent
Reduced-price lunches	23	13.0%
Free lunches	61	34.6%
Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches	92	52.2%

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

Pacific Technology School 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. Pacific Technology School 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 Pacific Technology School doesn't cover, look to your local community for activities, or to the Internet for self-study AP classes.

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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 Pacific Technology School Santa Ana? Will you be competitive for college? Will you have access to advanced classes?

We've compiled everything we could find about Pacific Technology School's academics here.

Standardized Testing

Next, we'll look at another major piece of high school academics: standardized testing performance for Pacific Technology School Santa Ana 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 Pacific Technology School Santa Ana 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 Pacific Technology School 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 Pacific Technology School is out of 5.

Compared to schools across California, this score puts Pacific Technology School 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 Pacific Technology School Santa Ana in the bottom 25 % of schools for AP tests.

This isn't all bad news for you, though. It's still good that Pacific Technology School 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 Pacific Technology School Santa Ana, 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.

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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