James Buchanan HS
Mercersburg · PA · Tuscarora SD · Public
Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
Mercersburg Academy → Fulton County Center for Career and Technology → McConnellsburg HS → Greencastle-Antrim SHS → Shalom Christian Academy → Chambersburg Area Career Magnet Sch → Franklin County Career and Technology Center → Cumberland Valley Christian School →📋 At a glance
- 📚 7 AP courses offered — Elite
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🔢 3 calculus classes · 3 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 73th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 39% by test-taker volume
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 87% (Bottom 39% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How James Buchanan HS compares for families
Stronger-than-average college-prep profile.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor at the 73th percentile nationally with 7 AP courses.
- ▸ LocallyPA students outperform the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (+4 points).
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Mercersburg Academy, Fulton County Center for Career and Technology, McConnellsburg HS 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
✅ 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 · 2020-21Bottom 39% 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?
Bottom 39% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate
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
High-poverty school
Title I Schoolwide eligible
≥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
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 +0.4%/year, projecting from 2024's 721 students:
An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.
Revenue upside
At $18,980 per student in district revenue, the 14 students projected to be gained by 2029 represent ≈ $265,720/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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mercersburg Academy Mercersburg |
Private | 2.0 | 425 | -4.3% |
| Fulton County Center for Career and Technology McConnellsburg |
Public | 7.2 | 1 | — |
| McConnellsburg HS McConnellsburg |
Public | 7.3 | 285 | +8.0% |
| Greencastle-Antrim SHS Greencastle |
Public | 10.6 | 982 | -4.4% |
| Shalom Christian Academy Chambersburg |
Private | 11.2 | 606 | +43.9% |
| Chambersburg Area Career Magnet Sch Chambersburg |
Public | 12.1 | 706 | +2.3% |
| Franklin County Career and Technology Center Chambersburg |
Public | 12.1 | 3 | — |
| Cumberland Valley Christian School Chambersburg |
Private | 13.5 | 423 | +6.5% |