Valley Pathways
Palmer · AK · Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District · Public · K-12 combined
📄 Shareable scorecard →Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
Mat-Su Middle College School → Burchell High School → Joe Redington Senior Jr/Sr High School → Mat-Su Day School → Palmer High School → Knik Charter School → Polaris K-12 School → Houston High School →📋 At a glance
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🎓 AP rigor: Bottom 18% of US high schools
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 1% by test-taker volume
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 72% (Bottom 16% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Valley Pathways compares for families
What families should know about Valley Pathways.
- ▸ LocallyAK 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: Mat-Su Middle College School, Burchell High School, Joe Redington Senior Jr/Sr High School and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
For Parents
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SAT / ACT participation
CRDC federal data · 2020-21Bottom 1% 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 16% 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
University of Alaska Fairbanks
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 $10,892/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 -11.7%/year, projecting from 2024's 143 students:
A small or specialty program — naive trend math doesn't capture the school's full picture. Read the trend as directional, not predictive.
An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mat-Su Middle College School Palmer |
Public | 2.5 | 222 | +18.7% |
| Burchell High School Wasilla |
Public | 10.8 | 200 | -14.9% |
| Joe Redington Senior Jr/Sr High School Wasilla |
Public | 18.7 | 231 | -19.5% |
| Mat-Su Day School Wasilla |
Public | 6.1 | 44 | — |
| Palmer High School Palmer |
Public | 1.4 | 616 | -17.0% |
| Knik Charter School Wasilla |
Public · charter | 5.7 | 38 | — |
| Polaris K-12 School Anchorage |
Public | 37.2 | 141 | +2.9% |
| Houston High School Big Lake |
Public | 19.8 | 337 | -8.2% |