Jefferson High School: Full Guide

Location: Daly City, CA

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

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

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

Let's get started!

Basic Information

Jefferson High School is a public school, supporting grades 9 to 12 . It's located in Daly City, CA in San Mateo County.

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

Contact Information

Mailing address:

Jefferson High School
6996 Mission St.
Daly City, CA 94014-2035

Phone number: 6505507700

Jefferson High School homepage: http://www.juhsd.net/Domain/11

Principal: Jason Brockmeyer
Email the principal: [email protected]

Student Demographics

Student Enrollment

The total enrollment at Jefferson High School is 1115 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, Jefferson 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 Jefferson High School growing or shrinking? This will help you see trends in where the school is headed.

From our calculations, the enrollment at Jefferson High 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	149	126	275
10^th grade	173	149	322
11^th grade	136	138	274
12^th grade	126	118	244

As you can see in the table above, the freshman class is 31 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 Daly City could be growing in population, thus sending more students into Jefferson High. Alternatively, Jefferson High could be relaxing its student policies and taking in more students.

Gender Split

Are there more boys or girls at Jefferson High School?

From our statistics, Jefferson High has a 53:47 split between male and female students in the high school grades.

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

From our statistics, Jefferson 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 Jefferson High is Asian. Across all of California, Asian students make up 11.5% of enrollment, but it's rare for a school to be predominantly Asian. Thus Jefferson High is notable for having a particularly strong Asian presence.

	Percentage	Number
American Indian/Alaska Native	0.0%	1
Asian	43.4%	485
Hispanic	41.3%	461
Black	3.8%	43
White	1.8%	21
Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander	2.1%	24
Two or more races	7.1%	80

High schools usually reflect the population in the surrounding area, so the ethnicities of students likely resembles those of Daly City. 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 Jefferson High Families

What are the family incomes of students at Jefferson 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 Jefferson High, 16.4% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 37.7% qualify for free lunches.

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

	Number	Percent
Reduced-price lunches	183	16.4%
Free lunches	421	37.7%
Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches	511	45.8%

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

Jefferson 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. Jefferson 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 Jefferson 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 Jefferson 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 Jefferson 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 Jefferson High students at risk.

In the school year of 2011-2012, there were 7 referrals to law enforcement (7 male, 0 female), and 4 school-related arrests (4 males, 0 females). This is out of a total enrollment of 1171 students.

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

This means that 0.9 Jefferson High is somewhat safe. For every 100 students, there was fewer than 1 law-enforcement related action. It seems like there are regularly incidents that involve law enforcement, but it's not widespread.

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

Jefferson Union High School District Safety

School Name	Total Referred	Total Arrests	Enrollment
Thornton High	0	0	126
Oceana High	4	0	622
Terra Nova High	6	8	1226
Westmoor High	6	10	1717
Summit Public School: Shasta	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 Jefferson High School? Will you be competitive for college? Will you have access to advanced classes?

We've compiled everything we could find about Jefferson 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 Jefferson 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 Jefferson High, 85% (of 249) Jefferson 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%.

Jefferson High is in the 56th 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 Jefferson 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 Jefferson High School SAT scores.

The average composite SAT score is a 1380 out of 2400, compared to a national average of 1500. Each year, roughly 166 at Jefferson High take the SAT.

This is a below-average SAT score, putting Jefferson High School in the bottom 50% of all California schools. Only 29% of students here score the national average or higher. Because the SAT measures academic achievement, this suggests that Jefferson High may offer a somewhat lacking high school education, compared to schools with higher SAT averages.

Note, however, that an average is just an average - top performers will still be able to impress. If you work hard and get an SAT score well above Jefferson High's average, you'll have a great shot at entering a good college.

Here's a breakdown of SAT scores by section:

Average SAT Scores (2013-2014)

Source	Critical Reading	Math	Writing	Composite
Jefferson High	455	477	452	1380
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 1380 as an SAT score? Find out with our complete 1380 SAT score guide, including which colleges you can get into with a 1380 or any other SAT score!

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Advanced Placement (AP)

Advanced Placement (AP) classes are college-level courses that are an additional academic challenge may give Jefferson 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 106 students in grades 9-12 at Jefferson High take 174 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 Jefferson High is 2.6 out of 5.

This score puts Jefferson High at average performance. For AP tests, the passing score is considered a 3, and the number of students who pass and don't pass are roughly even. This performance places Jefferson High School in the top 50% of schools for AP tests.

It's great that Jefferson High offers an AP program so you have the opportunity to take courses at a college level. Even though roughly half of all AP students here don't get a passing grade, half do - so with motivated studying throughout the year, you'll be able to beat the average.

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 Jefferson 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 Jefferson High, there is a total enrollment of 91 in AP courses (a student taking more than one AP course counts more than once).

Of AP-taking students, 101 took AP tests for ALL AP courses. 10 students took AP tests for SOME AP Courses, and 8 took AP courses but took NO tests.

This is good test participation. Most AP students at Jefferson 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. Jefferson 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 Jefferson 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, 27 students passed every AP test they took, which is a fantastic job. 15 students passed some but not all AP exams, and 48 students didn't pass ANY AP exam they took.

Unfortunately, this is poor performance compared to other high schools. At Jefferson High School, the majority of AP students fail ALL of the AP exams they take. This usually means that they're not adequately prepared for the national AP exam at the end of the year.

This isn't necessarily the school's fault. AP courses may be too advanced for the typical student at Jefferson High, and it's still a good thing that AP courses are offered at all. Furthermore, it's possible that a majority of the AP exams taken by students at Jefferson High are on the more difficult side.

However, if you're a student at Jefferson High, this is a warning that you'll have to go above and beyond the typical student to pass your AP exams. This may entail self-studying, figuring out who the better AP teachers are and trying to get into their classes, and working hard.

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

English/Language Arts

At Jefferson High School, 49% of students meet or exceed state standards in English/Language Arts.

This is considered above average and puts Jefferson High in the top 50% of all high schools in California for English/Language Arts. Around half of Jefferson High students pass state standards, and around half do not.

This specific percentage isn't much cause for concern - because the standards have gotten harder with the Common Core, the pass rate at Jefferson High will likely rise over time. But it still reflects Jefferson High's roughly average ranking 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 Jefferson High School, 18% of students meet or exceed state standards in Math. This is considered well below average and puts Jefferson High in the bottom 25% of all high schools in California. The vast majority of Jefferson 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 Jefferson 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 Jefferson 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 Jefferson High. Taking AP/IB classes also raises your weighted GPA and makes you a stronger college applicant.

Furthermore, many colleges will accept your Jefferson 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 Jefferson High School offer?

AP Courses

Jefferson High School offers AP courses in 9 subjects.

This is a relatively low number of AP subjects, putting Jefferson High School in the bottom 50% of California schools offering AP courses. You'll likely be able to take the most popular courses like Calculus, English, and US History, but you won't have most other subjects available.

The total number of AP subjects is 38, so Jefferson High is missing most. If you want to take any AP courses not being offered at Jefferson High, ask your counselor for ideas on how to cover the gap. If you're a strong student, you might consider transferring schools to access a more advanced curriculum.

Of course, keep in mind that even though Jefferson High doesn't offer many AP courses, it might teach the ones it does offer quite well. You can see student performance in the AP score analysis section above.

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

Course Title
Calculus AB
English Language and Composition
English Literature and Composition
Spanish Language and Culture
Studio Art: 2-D Design
Studio Art: 3-D Design
Studio Art: Drawing
United States Government and Politics
United States History

Sports Teams

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

By the way, the Jefferson High mascot is the Grizzlies. Go Grizzlies!

Jefferson High School fields 7 teams for girls' sports. This is a low number that puts Jefferson High in the bottom 25% of California schools that offer girls' sports. This is understandable - sports teams are expensive to support, and many schools would rather support other programs with their limited resources. If you play a sport that Jefferson High doesn't field a team for, consider joining a local non-school team to get practice and compete.

And now for the boys: Jefferson High School fields 14 teams for boys' sports. This relatively number puts Jefferson High in the bottom 50% of California schools that offer boys' sports. Sports teams are expensive to support, and Jefferson High may not be able to offer the full range of options. If you participate in a sport that Jefferson High doesn't offer, consider joining a local non-school team to get practice and compete.

Boys Teams	Girls Teams
Basketball Var JV Fr	Basketball 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
Crosscountry Var JV Fr	Crosscountry Var JV Fr
Soccer Var JV Fr	Soccer 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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