West Chester Bayard Rustin HS

West Chester · PA · West Chester Area SD · Public

📄 Shareable scorecard →

📚AP rigor: Top 3.7% nationally 📖27 AP courses 🎓98% 4-yr grad rate

📋 At a glance

Programs & features
  • 📚 27 AP courses offered — Elite
  • ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
  • ✅ Gifted & talented program
  • 🔢 6 calculus classes · 14 physics · 16 chemistry
Academic signals
  • 🎓 AP rigor: Top 3.7% of US high schools
  • 📝 SAT/ACT participation: 86th percentile by test-taker volume
  • 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 98% (Top 2.3% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)

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

💡

How West Chester Bayard Rustin HS 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 27 AP courses.
  • LocallyPA students outperform the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (+4 points).
  • vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: West Chester East HS, Strath Haven HS, Great Valley HS and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.

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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
27
Math ✓ · Science ✓
Students taking AP courses
422
≈36 per 100 students · uptake, not just offerings
Advanced math classes
23
6 calculus · 17 advanced
Lab science classes
30
14 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

86th percentile by test-taker volume

50th 90th
SAT/ACT test-takers
333
11th-12th graders who took 1+ college admissions test
Test-taking intensity
28.7
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?

Top 2.3% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate

50th 90th
4-year graduation rate
98%
Single-point estimate
4-year cohort size
323
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)
10.8%
Typical mix. Watch the trend — high turnover can compound.
% chronic teacher absence (≥10 days/yr)
55.9%
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

Lower-need school

Not Title I eligible (FRPL < 25%)

19.9%
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)

<25% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. Well below the Title I threshold; expect a higher-income student body on average.

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

Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus

54%
admit rate
$20,644
in-state tuition/yr · $41,790 out-of-state
1220–1400
SAT 25–75 · ACT 27–32

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 $32,875/yr. Admission odds depend on your student's GPA and test scores, not which high school they attend.

See the full Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus 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
15.4%
Roughly average. The national post-COVID rate climbed to ~16% nationwide; this school is in the middle of the pack.
Students absent 15+ days
178
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
232:1
Below the ASCA 250:1 recommendation — strong capacity for college planning, course selection, and student supports.
Counselor FTE
5.0
Full-time-equivalent school counselors on staff.
Teacher FTE
95
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 314 in 2021 to 290 in 2024 — over 3 years.
-7.6%

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

If the recent trend holds…

At its recent rate of -1.6%/year, projecting from 2024's 1,159 students:

2025
1,141
2027
1,105
2029
1,070

≈ 89 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 $22,050 per student in district revenue, the 89 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $1,962,450/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
West Chester East HS
West Chester
Public 2.9 1,216 -0.8%
Strath Haven HS
Wallingford
Public 10.1 1,175 -2.9%
Great Valley HS
Malvern
Public 8.1 1,481 +5.6%
Interboro SHS
Prospect Park
Public 13.5 1,079 +5.3%
Downingtown HS East Campus
Exton
Public 9.1 1,708 +0.4%
Collegium CS
Exton
Public · charter 7.9 636 -0.9%
Ridley HS
Folsom
Public 12.0 1,825 -1.5%
Upper Dublin HS
Fort Washington
Public 23.9 1,272 -3.6%

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