Lake Forest High School
Lake Forest · IL · Lake Forest CHSD 115 · Public
Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
Woodlands Academy Of The Sacred Heart → Safe Haven School → Lake Forest Academy → North Chicago Community High Sch → Arlyn Day School → Highland Park High School → Deerfield High School → District 128 Transition Pthwys Ct →📋 At a glance
- 📚 19 AP courses offered — Elite
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- 🔢 17 calculus classes · 14 physics · 21 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 73th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: 87th percentile by test-taker volume
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Lake Forest High School compares for families
Stronger-than-average college-prep profile.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor at the 73th percentile nationally with 19 AP courses.
- ▸ LocallyIL 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: Woodlands Academy Of The Sacred Heart, Safe Haven School, Lake Forest Academy 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
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 · 2020-2187th 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.
👩🏫 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: 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 -2.5%/year, projecting from 2024's 1,359 students:
≈ 163 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 $31,640 per student in district revenue, the 163 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $5,157,320/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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Woodlands Academy Of The Sacred Heart Lake Forest |
Private | 2.1 | 120 | -9.1% |
| Safe Haven School Lake Bluff |
Private | 2.6 | 36 | — |
| Lake Forest Academy Lake Forest |
Private | 2.9 | 437 | +0.5% |
| North Chicago Community High Sch North Chicago |
Public | 4.4 | 898 | +5.2% |
| Arlyn Day School Highland Park |
Private | 4.8 | 40 | — |
| Highland Park High School Highland Park |
Public | 5.3 | 1,661 | -8.0% |
| Deerfield High School Deerfield |
Public | 5.4 | 1,437 | -3.7% |
| District 128 Transition Pthwys Ct Libertyville |
Public | 5.6 | — | — |