Parkersburg South High School
Parkersburg · WV · Wood County Schools · Public
Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
Wood Co Voc Tech Ctr → Summit Success Center → Parkersburg High School → Parkersburg Catholic High School → Caperton Center for Applied Technology → Parkersburg Christian School → Wood County Christian School → Williamstown High School →📋 At a glance
- 📚 3 AP courses offered — Elite
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🔢 1 calculus classes · 3 physics · 3 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 66th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: 56th percentile by test-taker volume
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 93% (67th percentile nationally)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Parkersburg South High School compares for families
Stronger-than-average college-prep profile.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor at the 66th percentile nationally with 3 AP courses.
- ▸ LocallyWV trails the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (−9 points). Stronger local schools matter even more.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Wood Co Voc Tech Ctr, Summit Success Center, Parkersburg High 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
66th 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 · 2020-2156th 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?
67th percentile nationally
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 -3.3%/year, projecting from 2024's 1,373 students:
≈ 212 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 $13,702 per student in district revenue, the 212 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $2,904,824/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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wood Co Voc Tech Ctr Parkersburg |
Public | 0.1 | 2 | — |
| Summit Success Center Parkersburg |
Public | 0.5 | — | — |
| Parkersburg High School Parkersburg |
Public | 2.4 | 1,491 | -13.3% |
| Parkersburg Catholic High School Parkersburg |
Private | 2.9 | 77 | -43.4% |
| Caperton Center for Applied Technology Parkersburg |
Public | 2.9 | — | — |
| Parkersburg Christian School Parkersburg |
Private | 3.5 | 103 | +18.4% |
| Wood County Christian School Williamstown |
Private | 11.7 | 262 | +6.5% |
| Williamstown High School Williamstown |
Public | 12.0 | 379 | -4.5% |