Henry M. Gunn High
Palo Alto · CA · Palo Alto Unified · Public
Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
School For Independent Learners → Los Altos High → Living Widsom High School → Achieve Inc. → Living Wisdom School Of Palo Alto → Waldorf School-Peninsula → Palo Alto Preparatory School → Meira Academy →📋 At a glance
- 📚 26 AP courses offered — Elite
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- 🔢 12 calculus classes · 21 physics · 23 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 73th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: 87th percentile by test-taker volume
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 94% (69th percentile nationally)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Henry M. Gunn High compares for families
Stronger-than-average college-prep profile.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor at the 73th percentile nationally with 26 AP courses.
- ▸ LocallyCA trails the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (−4 points). Stronger local schools matter even more.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: School For Independent Learners, Los Altos High, Living Widsom 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
73th percentile nationally
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 · 2020-2187th 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?
69th 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.
👩🏫 Teacher workforce · federal CRDC
Teacher experience & reliability
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2017-18 — the most recent vintage that publishes per-school teacher quality fields; the 2020-21 sweep had them suppressed). "Inexperienced" = teachers in their first or second year. "Chronic absence" = teachers absent 10+ days/year.
🏛️ Federal Title I context
Lower-need school
Not Title I eligible (FRPL < 25%)
<25% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. Well below the Title I threshold; expect a higher-income student body on average.
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.
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 -4.2%/year, projecting from 2024's 1,643 students:
≈ 316 fewer students by 2029 — a real revenue/relevance risk worth getting ahead of.
An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.
Revenue at risk
At $26,872 per student in district revenue, the 316 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $8,491,552/year in funding at risk.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| School For Independent Learners Los Altos |
Private | 1.1 | 14 | — |
| Los Altos High Los Altos |
Public | 1.7 | 2,170 | +1.6% |
| Living Widsom High School Palo Alto |
Private | 1.8 | 10 | — |
| Achieve Inc. Palo Alto |
Private | 1.9 | 56 | — |
| Living Wisdom School Of Palo Alto Palo Alto |
Private | 2.0 | 72 | -1.4% |
| Waldorf School-Peninsula Mountain View |
Private | 2.1 | 121 | -16.6% |
| Palo Alto Preparatory School Mountain View |
Private | 2.3 | 64 | -8.6% |
| Meira Academy Palo Alto |
Private | 2.3 | 12 | — |