Lake Forest High School
Lake Forest · IL · Lake Forest CHSD 115 · Public
Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
Deerfield High School → Highland Park High School → Grayslake Central High School → North Chicago Community High Sch → Grayslake North High School → Wheeling High School → Lakes Community High School → Wauconda High School →📋 At a glance
- 📚 19 AP courses offered — Elite
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- 🔢 17 calculus classes · 14 physics · 21 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 73th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: 87th percentile by test-taker volume
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Lake Forest High School compares for families
Stronger-than-average college-prep profile.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor at the 73th percentile nationally with 19 AP courses.
- ▸ LocallyIL 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: Deerfield High School, Highland Park High School, Grayslake Central High School 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
73th 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 · 2020-2187th 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.
👩🏫 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.
🏛️ Your state's public flagship
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
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 $14,355/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: A low chronic-absence rate is the cleanest school-level signal of strong family connection, classroom culture, and student engagement — all upstream drivers of enrollment stability. 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 -2.7%/year, projecting from 2024's 1,359 students:
≈ 174 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 $31,640 per student in district revenue, the 174 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $5,505,360/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.
| School | Type | Miles | HS enrollment | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deerfield High School Deerfield |
Public | 5.4 | 1,437 | -3.7% |
| Highland Park High School Highland Park |
Public | 5.3 | 1,661 | -8.0% |
| Grayslake Central High School Grayslake |
Public | 12.0 | 1,375 | -0.2% |
| North Chicago Community High Sch North Chicago |
Public | 4.4 | 898 | +5.2% |
| Grayslake North High School Grayslake |
Public | 13.3 | 1,208 | -7.2% |
| Wheeling High School Wheeling |
Public | 10.8 | 1,743 | +0.1% |
| Lakes Community High School Lake Villa |
Public | 16.7 | 1,334 | -0.1% |
| Wauconda High School Wauconda |
Public | 15.7 | 1,452 | +0.9% |