Southern School of Energy and Sustainabi
Durham · NC · Durham Public Schools · Public
Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
East Chapel Hill High → Sanderson High → Chapel Hill High → Holton Career and Resource Center → Leesville Road High → Southeast Raleigh High → Wakefield High → Heritage High →📋 At a glance
- 📚 9 AP courses offered — Strong
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🎓 AP rigor: 63th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: 68th percentile by test-taker volume
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 76% (Bottom 24% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Southern School of Energy and Sustainabi compares for families
Solid mid-tier academic profile.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor at the 63th percentile nationally with 9 AP courses.
- ▸ LocallyNC 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: East Chapel Hill High, Sanderson High, Chapel Hill High 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
63th 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 · 2020-2168th 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.
🎓 4-year graduation rate · federal EDFacts
What % of students graduate on time?
Bottom 24% 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.
🏛️ Federal Title I context
High-poverty school
Title I Schoolwide eligible
≥75% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. These schools qualify for the highest tier of federal Title I funding and typically receive extra wraparound services. Academic outcomes vary widely — check the state assessment + grad-rate tiles.
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 North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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 $11,655/yr. Admission odds depend on your student's GPA and test scores, not which high school they attend.
Source: IPEDS admissions, tuition & enrollment + College Scorecard net price. Flagship = the state's primary public research university.
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 +3.2%/year, projecting from 2024's 1,384 students:
An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.
Revenue upside
At $14,238 per student in district revenue, the 234 students projected to be gained by 2029 represent ≈ $3,331,692/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.
| School | Type | Miles | HS enrollment | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Chapel Hill High Chapel Hill |
Public | 11.5 | 1,419 | -3.8% |
| Sanderson High Raleigh |
Public | 14.0 | 1,648 | +2.4% |
| Chapel Hill High Chapel Hill |
Public | 14.5 | 1,608 | +6.8% |
| Holton Career and Resource Center Durham |
Public | 2.9 | — | — |
| Leesville Road High Raleigh |
Public | 9.8 | 2,411 | -8.0% |
| Southeast Raleigh High Raleigh |
Public | 21.6 | 1,438 | +3.7% |
| Wakefield High Raleigh |
Public | 14.9 | 2,065 | -4.0% |
| Heritage High Wake Forest |
Public | 18.3 | 1,778 | -7.4% |