Essex High School
Essex Junction · VT · Essex Westford Educational Community Unified Union SD #51 · Public
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The Center for Technology - Essex → Trinity Baptist School → Jean Garvin School → Mill School (The) → Bellcate School → Winooski High School → South Burlington High School → Colchester High School →📋 At a glance
- 📚 16 AP courses offered — Elite
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- 🔢 14 calculus classes · 9 physics · 14 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 90th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: 84th percentile by test-taker volume
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 82% (Bottom 29% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Essex High School compares for families
Standout academic depth by national standards.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor in the top 10% nationally with 16 AP courses.
- ▸ LocallyVT students outperform the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (+4 points).
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: The Center for Technology - Essex, Trinity Baptist School, Jean Garvin School 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
90th percentile nationally
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 29% 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
Mixed-income school
Below Title I eligibility threshold (FRPL < 35%)
25-34% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. Below the federal Title I threshold but a meaningful share of the population is income-eligible for free lunch.
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: A low chronic-absence rate is the cleanest school-level signal of strong family connection, classroom culture, and student engagement — all upstream drivers of enrollment stability. 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 +0.0%/year, projecting from 2024's 1,224 students:
An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.
Revenue upside
At $26,143 per student in district revenue, the 0 students projected to be gained by 2029 represent ≈ $0/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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Center for Technology - Essex Essex Junction |
Public | 0.1 | — | — |
| Trinity Baptist School Williston |
Private | 2.1 | 94 | +40.3% |
| Jean Garvin School Williston |
Private | 3.0 | 23 | — |
| Mill School (The) Winooski |
Private | 3.3 | 26 | — |
| Bellcate School Essex Junction |
Private | 3.3 | 33 | — |
| Winooski High School Winooski |
Public | 3.5 | 182 | -9.9% |
| South Burlington High School South Burlington |
Public | 4.5 | 791 | -10.8% |
| Colchester High School Colchester |
Public | 5.9 | 715 | +0.1% |