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Jefferson High School

Rockford · IL · Rockford SD 205 · Public

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📋 At a glance

Programs & features
  • 📚 4 AP courses offered — Strong
  • ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
  • ✅ Gifted & talented program
Academic signals
  • 🎓 AP rigor: 56th percentile nationally
  • 📝 SAT/ACT participation: 86th percentile by test-taker volume

Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.

💡

How Jefferson High School compares for families

Solid mid-tier academic profile.

  • StatewideAP rigor at the 56th percentile nationally with 4 AP courses.
  • LocallyIL sits right at the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math — local school quality will set your kid apart.
  • vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: College and Career Education Cent, Cathedral Baptist School, Rockford East High School and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.

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🎓 Academic rigor

AP + advanced-course offerings

Strong — solid AP program + advanced courses

56th percentile nationally

50th 90th ↑ this school
Less rigorMore rigorMost rigor
AP courses offered
4
Subject breadth not reported
Advanced math classes
20
0 calculus · 20 advanced
Lab science classes
92
40 physics · 52 chemistry
Other rigor signals
✅ Dual-enrollment program
✅ 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 · 2020-21

86th percentile by test-taker volume

50th 90th
SAT/ACT test-takers
322
11th-12th graders who took 1+ college admissions test
Test-taking intensity
14.8
takers per 100 students in grades 9-12
Compared against
18,426
US high schools reporting SAT/ACT participation

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.

👩‍🏫 Teacher workforce · federal CRDC

Teacher experience & reliability

% inexperienced teachers (1st-2nd yr)
8.5%
Strong: experienced corps. New teachers rotate through but most have ≥3 years in.
% chronic teacher absence (≥10 days/yr)
39.7%
Elevated. Teacher absence directly affects classroom continuity and student outcomes.

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

Title I Schoolwide eligible

≥40% FRPL — qualifies for Title I Schoolwide program

70.0%
FRPL rate — % of students who qualify for the federal Free or Reduced-Price Lunch program. This is the underlying federal income-eligibility signal Title I designations are computed from (ESEA Sec. 1113).
0% (no FRPL) 35% TA · 40% Schoolwide 100% (universal FRPL)

40-74% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. The district can use Title I funds across the whole school under federal Schoolwide Program rules.

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

Student : Counselor
362:1
Around the US median. Counselors are stretched but functional.
Counselor FTE
6.0
Full-time-equivalent school counselors on staff.
Teacher FTE
106
Full-time-equivalent classroom teachers.

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

Grade 12 went from 374 in 2021 to 442 in 2024 — over 3 years.
+18.2%

Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).

If the recent trend holds…

At its recent rate of +1.0%/year, projecting from 2024's 2,173 students:

2025
2,194
2027
2,237
2029
2,280

An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.

Revenue upside

At $19,071 per student in district revenue, the 107 students projected to be gained by 2029 represent ≈ $2,040,597/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.

SchoolTypeMilesHS enrollmentTrend
College and Career Education Cent
Rockford
Public 0.1
Cathedral Baptist School
Rockford
Private 0.6 100 -20.6%
Rockford East High School
Rockford
Public 3.5 1,719 -0.6%
Beautiful Beginnings
Rockford
Private 5.3 26
Keith Country Day School
Rockford
Private 5.6 165 -20.3%
Roosevelt Center
Rockford
Public 5.9
Rockford Christian Schools
Rockford
Private 6.3 685 -31.8%
Guilford High School
Rockford
Public 6.5 2,216 +10.3%

For Parents

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