Murdock High School
Winchendon · MA · Winchendon · Public
Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
Narragansett Regional High → Gardner High → Oakmont Regional High School → Gardner Academy for Learning and Technology → Athol High → Fitchburg High → Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical → Sizer School: A North Central Charter Essential School →📋 At a glance
- 📚 4 AP courses offered — Strong
- 🔢 1 calculus classes · 4 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 54th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 38% by test-taker volume
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 67% (Bottom 13% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Murdock High School compares for families
Solid mid-tier academic profile.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor at the 54th percentile nationally with 4 AP courses.
- ▸ LocallyMA students outperform the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (+14 points).
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Narragansett Regional High, Gardner High, Oakmont Regional High School and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
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🎓 Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Strong — solid AP program + advanced courses
54th 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 · 2020-21Bottom 38% 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 13% 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 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 -1.1%/year, projecting from 2024's 256 students:
≈ 14 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 $18,374 per student in district revenue, the 14 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $257,236/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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Narragansett Regional High Baldwinville |
Public | 7.8 | 366 | +22.4% |
| Gardner High Gardner |
Public | 8.6 | 655 | +18.7% |
| Oakmont Regional High School Ashburnham |
Public | 9.0 | 629 | +2.4% |
| Gardner Academy for Learning and Technology Gardner |
Public | 9.1 | 123 | +28.1% |
| Athol High Athol |
Public | 11.4 | 413 | +11.9% |
| Fitchburg High Fitchburg |
Public | 13.1 | 1,220 | -3.7% |
| Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical Fitchburg |
Public | 13.3 | 1,417 | +0.3% |
| Sizer School: A North Central Charter Essential School Fitchburg |
Public · charter | 14.0 | 172 | -18.1% |