Trenton Central High School - Main Campus
TRENTON · NJ · Trenton Public School District · Public
📄 Shareable scorecard →Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
Hamilton West-Watson → Hamilton East - Steinert → West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South → Hamilton North - Nottingham → Lawrence High School → Rancocas Valley Regional High School → Hightstown High School → Ewing High School →📋 At a glance
- 📚 7 AP courses offered — Strong
- 🔢 1 calculus classes · 37 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 64th percentile nationally
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 77% (Bottom 25% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Trenton Central High School - Main Campus compares for families
Solid mid-tier academic profile.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor at the 64th percentile nationally with 7 AP courses.
- ▸ LocallyNJ students outperform the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (+12 points).
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Hamilton West-Watson, Hamilton East - Steinert, West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
For Parents
Follow Trenton Central High School - Main Campus
Get an email when Trenton Central High School - Main Campus's numbers change — new admissions results, enrollment shifts, test scores. A few updates a year, no spam.
🎓 Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Strong — solid AP program + advanced courses
64th 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 · 2020-21Source: 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 25% 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
Title I Schoolwide eligible
≥40% FRPL — qualifies for Title I Schoolwide program
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
Rutgers University-New Brunswick
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 $24,406/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.
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 -0.4%/year, projecting from 2024's 2,097 students:
≈ 43 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 $25,793 per student in district revenue, the 43 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $1,109,099/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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hamilton West-Watson HAMILTON |
Public | 1.7 | 1,408 | +16.7% |
| Hamilton East - Steinert HAMILTON |
Public | 4.2 | 1,437 | +5.4% |
| West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South West Windsor |
Public | 8.9 | 1,627 | +0.9% |
| Hamilton North - Nottingham HAMILTON |
Public | 1.9 | 1,147 | +19.7% |
| Lawrence High School LAWRENCEVILLE |
Public | 3.3 | 1,211 | +7.3% |
| Rancocas Valley Regional High School MOUNT HOLLY |
Public | 15.1 | 1,928 | -3.8% |
| Hightstown High School HIGHTSTOWN |
Public | 11.5 | 1,616 | +0.3% |
| Ewing High School EWING |
Public | 3.5 | 1,118 | +7.3% |