Walled Lake Western High School

COMMERCE TOWNSHIP · MI · Walled Lake Consolidated Schools · Public

📄 Shareable scorecard →

📚AP rigor: 80th percentile nationally 📖16 AP courses 🎓95% 4-yr grad rate

📋 At a glance

Programs & features
  • 📚 16 AP courses offered — Elite
  • ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
  • ✅ Gifted & talented program
  • 🔢 2 calculus classes · 6 physics · 16 chemistry
Academic signals
  • 🎓 AP rigor: 80th percentile nationally
  • 📝 SAT/ACT participation: 88th 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 Walled Lake Western High School compares for families

Stronger-than-average college-prep profile.

  • StatewideAP rigor in the top 20% nationally with 16 AP courses.
  • LocallyMI 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: Lakeland High School, Walled Lake Central High School, North Farmington 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

80th percentile nationally

50th 90th ↑ this school
Less rigorMore rigorMost rigor
AP courses offered
16
Math ✓ · Science ✓
Students taking AP courses
294
≈29 per 100 students · uptake, not just offerings
Advanced math classes
2
2 calculus · 0 advanced
Lab science classes
22
6 physics · 16 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

88th percentile by test-taker volume

50th 90th
SAT/ACT test-takers
361
11th-12th graders who took 1+ college admissions test
Test-taking intensity
36.1
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
293
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)
70.7%
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 Targeted Assistance eligible

35-39% FRPL — qualifies for Title I Targeted Assistance

36.8%
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)

35-39% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. The school can receive Title I funds targeted to identified students (not schoolwide).

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 Michigan-Ann Arbor

18%
admit rate
$17,736
in-state tuition/yr · $60,946 out-of-state
1350–1530
SAT 25–75 · ACT 31–34

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 $13,138/yr. Admission odds depend on your student's GPA and test scores, not which high school they attend.

See the full University of Michigan-Ann Arbor profile → Estimate your odds with your scores →

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

Chronic absenteeism

Share of students absent 15+ days
17.8%
Roughly average. The national post-COVID rate climbed to ~16% nationwide; this school is in the middle of the pack.
Students absent 15+ days
184
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
258:1
Above the ASCA 250:1 target but below the US median (~430:1). Capacity is workable.
Counselor FTE
4.0
Full-time-equivalent school counselors on staff.
Teacher FTE
48
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 271 in 2021 to 233 in 2024 — over 3 years.
-14.0%

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

If the recent trend holds…

At its recent rate of -4.0%/year, projecting from 2024's 1,033 students:

2025
992
2027
914
2029
843

≈ 190 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 $15,636 per student in district revenue, the 190 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $2,970,840/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.

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
Lakeland High School
WHITE LAKE
Public 6.6 1,012 -10.8%
Walled Lake Central High School
COMMERCE TOWNSHIP
Public 3.4 1,181 -5.4%
North Farmington High School
FARMINGTON HILLS
Public 7.2 1,157 -8.6%
Milford High School
HIGHLAND
Public 8.2 1,173 -6.8%
Walled Lake Northern High School
COMMERCE TOWNSHIP
Public 5.5 1,383 -9.8%
Waterford Mott High School
WATERFORD
Public 12.1 963 -17.8%
Southfield High School for the Arts and Technology
SOUTHFIELD
Public 13.5 1,049 -13.4%
Ernest W Seaholm High School
BIRMINGHAM
Public 13.8 1,057 -13.4%

For Parents

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