Central High School
Bolivar · TN · Hardeman County Schools · Public
Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
Middleton High School → Barbara Ward Cooper Education Center → Fayette Ware Comprehensive High School → Fayette Academy → George Thomas Jr Academy → George Thomas Jr Academy At Eden → Family Christian School → South Side High School →📋 At a glance
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🔢 1 calculus classes · 12 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: Bottom 44% of US high schools
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: 84th percentile 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 Central High School compares for families
Solid mid-tier academic profile.
- ▸ LocallyTN 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: Middleton High School, Barbara Ward Cooper Education Center, Fayette Ware Comprehensive High School and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
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🎓 Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Moderate — some AP / advanced course access
Bottom 44% of US high schools
✅ 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 · 2020-2184th 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?
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.
Chronic absenteeism
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
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 -0.6%/year, projecting from 2024's 663 students:
≈ 20 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 $12,418 per student in district revenue, the 20 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $248,360/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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Middleton High School Middleton |
Public | 14.8 | 265 | -13.4% |
| Barbara Ward Cooper Education Center Somerville |
Public | 20.6 | 30 | — |
| Fayette Ware Comprehensive High School Somerville |
Public | 20.7 | 724 | -15.3% |
| Fayette Academy Somerville |
Private | 21.3 | 530 | -2.0% |
| George Thomas Jr Academy Pinson |
Private | 22.1 | 24 | — |
| George Thomas Jr Academy At Eden Pinson |
Private | 22.2 | 24 | — |
| Family Christian School Jackson |
Private | 22.5 | 75 | +15.4% |
| South Side High School Jackson |
Public | 23.9 | 756 | -10.7% |