Palmer High School
Palmer · AK · Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District · Public
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Most similar nearby schools
Valley Pathways → Mat-Su Secondary School → Amazing Grace Academy → Colony High School → Mat-Su Middle College School → Ya Ne Dah Ah School → Knik Charter Correspondence School → Knik Charter School →📋 At a glance
- 📚 5 AP courses offered — Strong
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🔢 2 calculus classes · 1 physics · 5 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 61th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 19% by test-taker volume
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 97% (90th percentile nationally)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Palmer High School compares for families
Solid mid-tier academic profile.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor at the 61th percentile nationally with 5 AP courses.
- ▸ LocallyAK 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: Valley Pathways, Mat-Su Secondary School, Amazing Grace Academy 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
61th 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 19% 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?
90th 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.
🏛️ 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: 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 -7.8%/year, projecting from 2024's 616 students:
≈ 205 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 $17,695 per student in district revenue, the 205 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $3,627,475/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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Valley Pathways Palmer |
Public | 1.4 | 143 | -20.1% |
| Mat-Su Secondary School Palmer |
Public | 1.7 | 9 | — |
| Amazing Grace Academy Palmer |
Private | 2.3 | 86 | -21.1% |
| Colony High School Palmer |
Public | 2.5 | 1,046 | -8.8% |
| Mat-Su Middle College School Palmer |
Public | 3.8 | 222 | +18.7% |
| Ya Ne Dah Ah School Chickaloon |
Private | 6.3 | 13 | — |
| Knik Charter Correspondence School Wasilla |
Public · charter | 6.8 | 13 | — |
| Knik Charter School Wasilla |
Public · charter | 6.8 | 38 | — |