Forsyth Central High School

Cumming · GA · Forsyth County · Public

📄 Shareable scorecard →

📚AP rigor: Top 3.7% nationally 📖26 AP courses 🎓95% 4-yr grad rate

📋 At a glance

Programs & features
  • 📚 26 AP courses offered — Elite
  • ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
  • ✅ Gifted & talented program
  • 🔢 6 calculus classes · 12 physics · 15 chemistry
Academic signals
  • 🎓 AP rigor: Top 3.7% of US high schools
  • 📝 SAT/ACT participation: 94th percentile by test-taker volume
  • 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 95% (75th percentile nationally)

Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.

💡

How Forsyth Central High School compares for families

Among the nation's most academically rigorous high schools.

  • StatewideAP rigor sits in the top 3.7% of US high schools with 26 AP courses.
  • LocallyGA 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: West Forsyth High School, South Forsyth High School, North Forsyth High School and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.

For Parents

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🎓 Academic rigor

AP + advanced-course offerings

Elite — exceptional AP + advanced course breadth

Top 3.7% of US high schools

50th 90th ↑ this school
Less rigorMore rigorMost rigor
AP courses offered
26
Math ✓ · Science ✓
Students taking AP courses
754
≈31 per 100 students · uptake, not just offerings
Advanced math classes
28
6 calculus · 22 advanced
Lab science classes
27
12 physics · 15 chemistry
Other rigor signals
✅ Dual-enrollment program
✅ 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 · 2020-21

94th percentile by test-taker volume

50th 90th
SAT/ACT test-takers
544
11th-12th graders who took 1+ college admissions test
Test-taking intensity
22.1
takers per 100 students in grades 9-12
Compared against
18,426
US high schools reporting SAT/ACT participation

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?

75th percentile nationally

50th 90th
4-year graduation rate
95%
Single-point estimate
4-year cohort size
681
Students in the 9th-grade entry class tracked over 4 years
Compared against
17,988
US high schools reporting 4-year ACGR

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

% inexperienced teachers (1st-2nd yr)
3.4%
Strong: experienced corps. New teachers rotate through but most have ≥3 years in.
% chronic teacher absence (≥10 days/yr)
23.7%
Elevated. Teacher absence directly affects classroom continuity and student outcomes.

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

Title I Schoolwide eligible

≥40% FRPL — qualifies for Title I Schoolwide program

40.0%
FRPL rate — % of students who qualify for the federal Free or Reduced-Price Lunch program. This is the underlying federal income-eligibility signal Title I designations are computed from (ESEA Sec. 1113).
0% (no FRPL) 35% TA · 40% Schoolwide 100% (universal FRPL)

40-74% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. The district can use Title I funds across the whole school under federal Schoolwide Program rules.

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.

🏛️ Your state's public flagship

University of Georgia

37%
admit rate
$11,450
in-state tuition/yr · $31,688 out-of-state
1160–1390
SAT 25–75 · ACT 25–32

The in-state tuition gap is the flagship's biggest draw — most in-state families pay far less than the out-of-state sticker. Average net price after aid runs about $13,936/yr. Admission odds depend on your student's GPA and test scores, not which high school they attend.

See the full University of Georgia profile → Estimate your odds with your scores →

Source: IPEDS admissions, tuition & enrollment + College Scorecard net price. Flagship = the state's primary public research university.

💰 Pay for college in Georgia

Georgia's public scholarships

Georgia's lottery-funded HOPE and Zell Miller scholarships are pure merit — no income limit. GPAs are recalculated by the state (GSFC) on core academic courses only.

Merit HOPE Scholarship
A set percentage of in-state public-college tuition
GPA: 3.0 (GSFC core-course GPA) Income: No income limit

Covers a set share of public-college tuition for Georgia grads with a 3.0+ core GPA — no test score or income limit. (Requires 4 rigor credits; maintain a 3.0 in college.)

Official program details ↗
Merit Zell Miller Scholarship
100% of in-state public-college tuition
GPA: 3.7 (GSFC core GPA) — or 3.0 for a named valedictorian/salutatorian Test: SAT 1200 / ACT 25 in a single sitting (waived on the val/sal path) Income: No income limit

Top tier: full public-college tuition for a 3.7 GPA plus a single-sitting SAT 1200 / ACT 25. Named valedictorians and salutatorians qualify at a 3.0 with no test. (The 3.0 val/sal path needs no test score; 3.3 is the separate in-college maintenance GPA.)

Official program details ↗

Eligibility rules change yearly — confirm with the official program before relying on it. Amounts are recent published figures; awards cover tuition/fees, not housing or books unless noted. Verified 2026-06-14.

Chronic absenteeism

Share of students absent 15+ days
19.0%
Roughly average. The national post-COVID rate climbed to ~16% nationwide; this school is in the middle of the pack.
Students absent 15+ days
466
Federal definition: absent (excused or unexcused) for at least 15 of ~180 school days — about 10% of the school year.

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

Student : Counselor
410:1
Around the US median. Counselors are stretched but functional.
Counselor FTE
6.0
Full-time-equivalent school counselors on staff.
Teacher FTE
160
Full-time-equivalent classroom teachers.

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

Grade 12 went from 632 in 2021 to 564 in 2024 — over 3 years.
-10.8%

Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).

If the recent trend holds…

At its recent rate of +1.0%/year, projecting from 2024's 2,457 students:

2025
2,481
2027
2,530
2029
2,580

An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.

Revenue upside

At $12,673 per student in district revenue, the 123 students projected to be gained by 2029 represent ≈ $1,558,779/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.

Most similar nearby high schools

The schools most like this one — same type, blended on distance and size — and where their enrollment is heading. These are the schools families here weigh against each other.

SchoolTypeMilesHS enrollmentTrend
West Forsyth High School
Cumming
Public 4.2 2,503 +4.0%
South Forsyth High School
Cumming
Public 5.0 2,634 +11.8%
North Forsyth High School
Cumming
Public 4.7 2,151 +0.0%
Denmark High School
Alpharetta
Public 7.0 2,527 +5.7%
Lambert High School
Suwanee
Public 7.6 3,249 +10.5%
North Gwinnett High School
Suwanee
Public 9.8 3,033 -1.7%
Duluth High School
Duluth
Public 14.2 2,556 -4.4%
Creekview High School
Canton
Public 11.3 2,039 -1.0%

For Parents

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