← PA High School Explorer

Connellsville Area SHS

Connellsville · PA · Connellsville Area SD · Public

📄 Shareable scorecard →

📚AP rigor: 90th percentile nationally 📖13 AP courses

📋 At a glance

Programs & features
  • 📚 13 AP courses offered — Elite
  • ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
  • ✅ Gifted & talented program
  • 🔢 2 calculus classes · 6 physics · 16 chemistry
Academic signals
  • 🎓 AP rigor: 90th percentile nationally
  • 📝 SAT/ACT participation: 70th percentile by test-taker volume
  • 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 86% (Bottom 36% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)

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

💡

How Connellsville Area SHS compares for families

Standout academic depth by national standards.

  • StatewideAP rigor in the top 10% nationally with 13 AP courses.
  • LocallyPA students outperform the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (+4 points).
  • vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Connellsville Area Career & Technical Center, Geibel Catholic Junior-Senior High School, Mt Carmel Christian School and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.

For Parents

📬

Follow Connellsville Area SHS

Get an email when Connellsville Area SHS's numbers change — new admissions results, enrollment shifts, test scores. A few updates a year, no spam.

🎓 Academic rigor

AP + advanced-course offerings

Elite — exceptional AP + advanced course breadth

90th percentile nationally

50th 90th ↑ this school
Less rigorMore rigorMost rigor
AP courses offered
13
Math ✓ · Science ✓
Advanced math classes
6
2 calculus · 4 advanced
Lab science classes
22
6 physics · 16 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

70th percentile by test-taker volume

50th 90th
SAT/ACT test-takers
156
11th-12th graders who took 1+ college admissions test
Test-taking intensity
23.4
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?

Bottom 36% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate

50th 90th
4-year graduation rate
86%
Single-point estimate
4-year cohort size
286
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)
3.8%
Strong: experienced corps. New teachers rotate through but most have ≥3 years in.
% chronic teacher absence (≥10 days/yr)
64.6%
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

High-poverty school

Title I Schoolwide eligible

167.5%
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)

≥75% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. These schools qualify for the highest tier of federal Title I funding and typically receive extra wraparound services. Academic outcomes vary widely — check the state assessment + grad-rate tiles.

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
27.4%
Elevated above the national average (~16%). Worth understanding — chronic absence compounds into dropout risk, transfer-out risk, and revenue loss.
Students absent 15+ days
183
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 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

Student : Counselor
167:1
Below the ASCA 250:1 recommendation — strong capacity for college planning, course selection, and student supports.
Counselor FTE
4.0
Full-time-equivalent school counselors on staff.
Teacher FTE
75
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 192 in 2021 to 193 in 2024 — over 3 years.
+0.5%

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

If the recent trend holds…

At its recent rate of -6.7%/year, projecting from 2024's 667 students:

2025
622
2027
542
2029
472

≈ 195 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 $20,208 per student in district revenue, the 195 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $3,940,560/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
Connellsville Area Career & Technical Center
Connellsville
Public 0.2 592 +20.3%
Geibel Catholic Junior-Senior High School
Connellsville
Private 0.3 115 -32.4%
Mt Carmel Christian School
Mount Pleasant
Private 5.2 74 +10.4%
Southmoreland SHS
Alverton
Public 7.9 566 -1.0%
Champion Christian School
Champion
Private 10.2 79 +8.2%
Frazier HS
Perryopolis
Public 10.5 309 +0.3%
Mount Pleasant Area HS
Mount Pleasant
Public 10.6 597 -2.0%
Laurel Highlands SHS
Uniontown
Public 10.9 753 -14.3%

For Parents

Researching colleges for your kid at Connellsville Area SHS?

Get a personalized College Plan Audit — find Reach, Target, and Safety colleges matched to your kid's GPA, test scores, intended major, and your family's budget. Free.

Start the College Plan Audit →

For School Admins looking at enrollment trends: request an Enrollment Trend Audit →