Location: Porterville, CA
Are you a student or parent at Prospect Education Center? Want to understand how to get the most out of high school?
We've written the best guide to Prospect Education Center available. Here we'll cover:
- Breakdowns of student ethnicity, gender, and family income
- How safe Prospect Education Center is to attend
- SAT/ACT/AP scores earned by Prospect Education Center students
- Which AP/IB classes you can take at Prospect Education Center
- Every sports team you can join at Prospect Education Center
Let's get started!
Basic Information
Prospect Education Center is a public school, supporting grades 0 to 12 . It's located in Porterville, CA in Tulare County.
Based on its location, Prospect Education Center is classified as a school in a small city. Here's the location on a map:
Contact Information
Mailing address:
Prospect Education Center645 N. Prospect St. Porterville, CA 93257
Phone number: 5597827095
Prospect Education Center homepage: http://www.portervilleschools.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?type=d&uREC_ID=294175&pREC_ID=698809
Principal: Dawn CraterEmail the principal: [email protected]
Student Demographics
Student Enrollment
The total enrollment at Prospect Education Center is 105 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, Prospect Education Center 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 Prospect Education Center lacking for your interests, consider looking to your local community to supplement your interests.
Growth in Student Body Size
Is Prospect Education Center growing or shrinking? This will help you see trends in where the school is headed.
From our calculations, the enrollment at Prospect Education Center 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9th grade | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| 10th grade | 8 | 10 | 18 |
| 11th grade | 6 | 19 | 25 |
| 12th grade | 13 | 35 | 48 |
As you can see in the table above, the senior class is 43 students larger than the freshman class. This suggests that Prospect Education Center is shrinking in size and taking on fewer students.
There are a few reasons this can happen. The population of Porterville could be decreasing, thus sending fewer students into Prospect Education Center. Alternatively, other schools (like charter or private schools) might be appearing, drawing students away.
Gender Split
Are there more boys or girls at Prospect Education Center?
From our statistics, Prospect Education Center has a 31:69 split between male and female students in the high school grades.
There is a large female majority at Prospect Education Center, and the imbalance is greater than you would expect from the general population in Tulare 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 Prospect Education Center. In other cases, the school might preferentially select for females (if it has its own admissions criteria), or parents with female kids might prefer to send them to Prospect Education Center. In yet other cases, other neighboring schools might attract male students, drawing them away from Prospect Education Center.
If this gender imbalance is a concern for you, we suggest contacting Prospect Education Center administration and asking if they have any thoughts about why there's a female majority. Their phone number is 5597827095.
Ethnicity Breakdown
What's the racial diversity at Prospect Education Center? Does one ethnicity make up most of the student body, or is it fairly balanced?
From our statistics, Prospect Education Center 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 Prospect Education Center 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 Prospect Education Center 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 Prospect Education Center fits within this category.
| Percentage | Number | |
|---|---|---|
| American Indian/Alaska Native | 4.7% | 5 |
| Asian | 0.0% | 0 |
| Hispanic | 55.2% | 58 |
| Black | 0.0% | 0 |
| White | 39.0% | 41 |
| Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander | 0.0% | 0 |
| Two or more races | 0.9% | 1 |
High schools usually reflect the population in the surrounding area, so the ethnicities of students likely resembles those of Porterville. 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 Prospect Education Center Families
What are the family incomes of students at Prospect Education Center? 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 Prospect Education Center, 3.8% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 74.2% qualify for free lunches.
This means Prospect Education Center has a high percentage of students at or near poverty. Almost a third of all schools in California show this level of poverty, and by National Center for Education Statistics standards, Prospect Education Center can be classified as a high poverty school. The income level of families in Porterville is thus likely to be low.
| Number | Percent | |
|---|---|---|
| Reduced-price lunches | 4 | 3.8% |
| Free lunches | 78 | 74.2% |
| Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches | 23 | 21.9% |
As with ethnicity, this likely reflects the surrounding community in Porterville and doesn't speak much about the school itself.
Unfortunately, schools in areas of lower income levels are likely to be more poorly funded. As a result, they might feature less advanced coursework like AP/IB classes, and you may not have a full range of sports and extracurriculars to draw from. Because Prospect Education Center is an especially high poverty-level school, it might not have the resources you need to meet your full potential.
You definitely don't have control over the city, the school, or other families, but you can structure your own learning to be more productive. If you'd like to open yourself to more opportunities, you can look into whether it's possible to transfer to a nearby school with higher income levels.
If not, don't be alarmed - it's possible that Prospect Education Center has all that you need for your ambition. And you can definitely be proactive about learning outside of your school, looking to your community or to the Internet to find more resources.
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 Prospect Education Center 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 Prospect Education Center: 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 Prospect Education Center 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 145 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:
Porterville Unified School District Safety
| School Name | Total Referred | Total Arrests | Enrollment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Citrus High | 0 | 0 | 183 |
| Monache High | 0 | 0 | 1928 |
| Porterville High | 0 | 0 | 1867 |
| Vine Street Community Day | 0 | 0 | 17 |
| Granite Hills High | 0 | 4 | 1867 |
| Strathmore High | 0 | 0 | 653 |
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 Prospect Education Center? Will you be competitive for college? Will you have access to advanced classes?
We've compiled everything we could find about Prospect Education Center's academics here.
Standardized Testing
Next, we'll look at another major piece of high school academics: standardized testing performance for Prospect Education Center students. These are tests that are administered to large populations of students for comparison purposes.
State Tests
As of 2014, eleventh graders attending Prospect Education Center 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 Prospect Education Center 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 Prospect Education Center.
English/Language Arts
At Prospect Education Center, 19% of students meet or exceed state standards in English/Language Arts.
This is considered well below average and puts Prospect Education Center in the bottom 25% of all high schools in California for English/Language Arts. The vast majority of Prospect Education Center 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 Prospect Education Center will likely increase. But it still reflects Prospect Education Center'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 Prospect Education Center, 0% of students meet or exceed state standards in Math. This is considered well below average and puts Prospect Education Center in the bottom 25% of all high schools in California. The vast majority of Prospect Education Center 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?
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