Gulf Shores High School
Gulf Shores · AL · Gulf Shores City · Public
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Most similar nearby schools
Orange Beach MiddleHigh School → South Baldwin Christian Academy → Foley High School → Elberta High School → Snook Christian Academy → Snook Christian Academy → Robertsdale High School → South Baldwin Center For Technology →📋 At a glance
- 📚 12 AP courses offered — Elite
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🔢 1 calculus classes · 1 physics · 4 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 82th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: 75th percentile by test-taker volume
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 93% (67th percentile nationally)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Gulf Shores High School compares for families
Stronger-than-average college-prep profile.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor in the top 18% nationally with 12 AP courses.
- ▸ LocallyAL trails the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (−10 points). Stronger local schools matter even more.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Orange Beach MiddleHigh School, South Baldwin Christian Academy, Foley High School and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
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🎓 Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Elite — exceptional AP + advanced course breadth
82th percentile nationally
✅ Gifted/talented program
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). CRDC reports what's offered + enrolled — it doesn't collect AP exam pass rates (College Board owns that data and doesn't release it school-level).
SAT / ACT participation
CRDC federal data · 2020-2175th percentile by test-taker volume
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). Volume — not score — is what's reported here. A higher count means more students at this school are entering the college admissions pipeline. Note: 2020-21 was COVID-disrupted; some districts (especially those that stayed remote longer) report unusually low or zero takers.
🎓 4-year graduation rate · federal EDFacts
What % of students graduate on time?
67th percentile nationally
Source: federal EDFacts ACGR (Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate), 2019 vintage via Urban Institute. EDFacts publishes a range (low-high) to preserve privacy on small cohorts; we display the midpoint.
🏛️ Federal Title I context
Mixed-income school
Below Title I eligibility threshold (FRPL < 35%)
25-34% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. Below the federal Title I threshold but a meaningful share of the population is income-eligible for free lunch.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data, free/reduced-price lunch eligibility. The actual Title I designation is a district decision and may differ from eligibility — but the federal eligibility math is what we show here. We don't claim to assert whether the district formally chose to enroll this school in Title I.
Chronic absenteeism
Why this matters to enrollment: Chronic absence is the most reliable early indicator that a student will leave a school — either by transferring out, dropping out, or matriculating to a charter or private alternative. At this level, today's absentees become next year's enrollment loss and the year-after's revenue loss. For school leaders: an Enrollment Trend Audit traces this dynamic forward →
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020–2021. Rate = students chronically absent ÷ 2024 total enrollment.
Counselor capacity
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020-2021. Counselor ratio = the school's most recent total enrollment ÷ counselor FTE. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends a 250:1 maximum; the US national median across schools with on-staff counselors is roughly 430:1.
Enrollment trend & projection
Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).
If the recent trend holds…
At its recent rate of +7.6%/year, projecting from 2024's 927 students:
An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.
Revenue upside
At $17,933 per student in district revenue, the 410 students projected to be gained by 2029 represent ≈ $7,352,530/year in additional funding.
District total revenue ÷ enrollment, NCES F-33. Public funding largely follows enrollment, so a shrinking class is a recurring budget hit.
Nearby high schools — the local competition
The closest high schools families here also consider, and where their enrollment is heading.
| School | Type | Miles | HS enrollment | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orange Beach MiddleHigh School Orange Beach |
Public | 3.7 | 459 | +12.8% |
| South Baldwin Christian Academy Gulf Shores |
Private | 3.9 | 154 | — |
| Foley High School Foley |
Public | 7.8 | 1,520 | +3.0% |
| Elberta High School Elberta |
Public | 11.4 | 735 | -0.8% |
| Snook Christian Academy Foley |
Private | 13.1 | 261 | — |
| Snook Christian Academy Foley |
Private | 13.1 | 258 | — |
| Robertsdale High School Robertsdale |
Public | 18.8 | 1,418 | +4.6% |
| South Baldwin Center For Technology Robertsdale |
Public | 19.4 | — | — |