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Mountain Ridge High School

Frostburg · MD · Allegany County Public Schools · Public

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📚AP rigor: 78th percentile nationally 📖15 AP courses

📋 At a glance

Programs & features
  • 📚 15 AP courses offered — Elite
  • ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
  • 🔢 1 calculus classes · 10 chemistry
Academic signals
  • 🎓 AP rigor: 78th percentile nationally
  • 📝 SAT/ACT participation: 60th percentile by test-taker volume
  • 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 92% (60th percentile nationally)

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

💡

How Mountain Ridge High School compares for families

Stronger-than-average college-prep profile.

  • StatewideAP rigor in the top 22% nationally with 15 AP courses.
  • LocallyMD 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: Center for Career & Technical Education, Calvary Christian Academy, Allegany High and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.

For Parents

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🎓 Academic rigor

AP + advanced-course offerings

Elite — exceptional AP + advanced course breadth

78th percentile nationally

50th 90th ↑ this school
Less rigorMore rigorMost rigor
AP courses offered
15
Math ✓ · Science ✓
Advanced math classes
11
1 calculus · 10 advanced
Lab science classes
10
0 physics · 10 chemistry
Other rigor signals
✅ Dual-enrollment 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

60th percentile by test-taker volume

50th 90th
SAT/ACT test-takers
99
11th-12th graders who took 1+ college admissions test
Test-taking intensity
13.3
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.

🎓 4-year graduation rate · federal EDFacts

What % of students graduate on time?

60th percentile nationally

50th 90th
4-year graduation rate
92%
Range: 90–94%
4-year cohort size
170
Students in the 9th-grade entry class tracked over 4 years
Compared against
17,988
US high schools reporting 4-year ACGR

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

% inexperienced teachers (1st-2nd yr)
2.0%
Strong: experienced corps. New teachers rotate through but most have ≥3 years in.
% chronic teacher absence (≥10 days/yr)
42.9%
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

48.6%
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.

Chronic absenteeism

Share of students absent 15+ days
13.6%
Roughly average. The national post-COVID rate climbed to ~16% nationwide; this school is in the middle of the pack.
Students absent 15+ days
101
Federal definition: absent (excused or unexcused) for at least 15 of ~180 school days — about 10% of the school year.

Why this matters to enrollment: Chronic absence is the strongest early indicator of dropout, transfer-out, and family disengagement. A school's absenteeism trend forecasts its enrollment trend 1-3 years out. 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

Student : Counselor
372:1
Around the US median. Counselors are stretched but functional.
Counselor FTE
2.0
Full-time-equivalent school counselors on staff.
Teacher FTE
46
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 167 in 2021 to 143 in 2024 — over 3 years.
-14.4%

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

If the recent trend holds…

At its recent rate of -0.4%/year, projecting from 2024's 743 students:

2025
740
2027
735
2029
730

≈ 13 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 $18,342 per student in district revenue, the 13 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $238,446/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.

SchoolTypeMilesHS enrollmentTrend
Center for Career & Technical Education
Cresaptown
Public 5.8 300 +24.0%
Calvary Christian Academy
Cresaptown
Private 5.9 253
Allegany High
Cumberland
Public 6.3 719 -2.4%
Bishop Walsh School,K-12/Diocese
Cumberland
Private 6.6 306 +6.6%
Fort Hill High
Cumberland
Public 8.8 655 -1.1%
Lighthouse Christian Academy
Cumberland
Private 9.5 166 +100.0%
Bittinger Mennonite School
Bittinger
Private 17.2 46
Northern Garrett High School
Accident
Public 20.4 439 -2.0%

For Parents

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