AJC Photo Gallery: 9 of Georgia's 10 largest high schools by enrollment are in Metro Atlanta (Valdosta: transplants)

[Born 2 Roll]

Since schools are understandably such a major and ongoing frequent topic of discussion in the Atlanta forum, here are a couple of links about Atlanta area schools that might be of interest to some of the regulars and some newcomers.

The first link is a link to an Atlanta Journal Constitution photo gallery that shows Georgia's 10 largest high schools by enrollment, 9 of which are in Metro Atlanta and the 8 largest of which are in Gwinnett County.

The 9th largest high school in the state by enrollment (Lowndes High School) is in Lowndes County (Valdosta) in extreme South Georgia and the 10th largest high school in the state by enrollment (North Cobb High School) is in Cobb County (Kennesaw) in Northwest Metro Atlanta.

Atlanta Journal Constitution photo gallery: Georgia's 10 largest high schools by enrollment...
Photos: Georgia's 10 largest high schools by enrollment | www.ajc.com

Georgia’s largest high schools have more students in one school than some districts have in all schools combined. Here’s a look at who is tops in enrollment, according to Georgia Department of Education data from spring 2015.

1. Mill Creek High School has 3,776 students. The Gwinnett County school is ranked No. 32 in the state with 2014 average SAT scores of 1549, and a 2014 graduation rate of 87 percent.

2. Norcross High School has 3,590 students. The Gwinnett County school is ranked No. 30 in the state with 2014 average SAT scores of 1470, and a 2014 graduation rate of 69.6 percent.

3. Meadowcreek High School has 3,454 students. The Gwinnett County school has 2014 average SAT scores of 1281, and a 2014 graduation rate of 52 percent. Meadowcreek is unranked.

4. Brookwood High School has 3,396 students. The Gwinnett County school is ranked No. 16 in the state with 2014 average SAT scores of 1607, and a 2014 graduation rate of 91.3 percent.

5. Berkmar High School has 3,360 students. The Gwinnett County school has 2014 average SAT scores of 1344, and a 2014 graduation rate of 57.8 percent. Berkmar is unranked.

6. Peachtree Ridge High School has 3,159 students. The Gwinnett County school is ranked No. 27 in the state with 2014 average SAT scores of 1566, and a 2014 graduation rate of 86.5 percent.

7. Collins Hill High School has 3,099 students. The Gwinnett County school is ranked No. 38 in the state with 2014 average SAT scores of 1523, and a 2014 graduation rate of 81.6 percent.

8. Parkview High School has 2,823 students. The Gwinnett County school is ranked No. 29 in the state with 2014 average SAT scores of 1557, and a 2014 graduation rate of 88.5 percent.

9. Lowndes High School has 2,810 students. The Lowndes County school has 2014 average SAT scores of 1405, and a 2014 graduation rate of 82.9 percent. Lowndes is unranked.

10. North Cobb High School has 2,805 students. The Cobb County school is ranked No. 50 in the state with 2014 average SAT scores of 1441, and a 2014 graduation rate of 82.9 percent.

The second link is to a related story in the Atlanta Journal Constitution that is a list of the best individual public high schools in each Metro Atlanta county....With the exception of Clayton and Rockdale counties which did not have any schools that appeared on the list.

Nearly every core metro Atlanta county has at least one name appear in U.S. News and World Report's most recent rankings of the nation's best public schools.

Indeed, Gwinnett County's Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology is America’s fourth-best high school. (It was named the state's "most challenging" school earlier this year.)

The annual rankings measure schools in four major categories: student-teacher ratio, college readiness, math proficiency and English proficiency.

Here is the best-ranked school in each of the core metro Atlanta counties — Cherokee, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett and Henry counties.

Clayton and Rockdale counties did not have schools on the list.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has also compiled the 2014 educational data in several important categories for all of these ranked schools, as well as nearly every Georgia public high school, including graduation rates, average SAT scores and more.

That information is included with each.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution: The best high schools in Atlanta, by county...
The best high schools in Atlanta, by county | www.ajc.com

[sedimenjerry]

For size, Collins Hill has really fallen down the list. I remember when it was largest in the state with around 3,750. Then Mill Creek came along with over 4,000 students when it first opened. Since then Mountain View HS has opened relieving pressure from both. Fun fact: back when Collins Hill was the largest in the state (and maybe still now, I don't know), its middle school (Creekland) was the largest middle school in the entire country. It's the only MS that feeds into Collins Hill.

Didn't realize how large Norcross and Meadowcreek had gotten. Brookwood has been fairly constant. A little area was rezoned recently due to the new HS (Discovery). That may have caused the slight drop. Seems like it's been hovering around 3,500 for the last 10 years at least. Also, amazing that some of the largest in the state are also top performers.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by sedimenjerry

For size, Collins Hill has really fallen down the list. I remember when it was largest in the state with around 3,750. Then Mill Creek came along with over 4,000 students when it first opened. Since then Mountain View HS has opened relieving pressure from both. Fun fact: back when Collins Hill was the largest in the state (and maybe still now, I don't know), its middle school (Creekland) was the largest middle school in the entire country. It's the only MS that feeds into Collins Hill.

Didn't realize how large Norcross and Meadowcreek had gotten. Brookwood has been fairly constant. A little area was rezoned recently due to the new HS (Discovery). That may have caused the slight drop. Seems like it's been hovering around 3,500 for the last 10 years at least. Also, amazing that some of the largest in the state are also top performers.

I guess that we should keep in mind that the enrollment numbers that the AJC is citing are from spring of 2015 or last school year (the 2014-2015 school year).

According to the Gwinnett County Public Schools website, the enrollment numbers for some of the schools cited have edged back up for the current school year (the 2015-2016 school year).

Mill Creek High School's enrollment appears to have increased to 3,979 students for the current school year.

Norcross High School's enrollment appears to have increased to 3,712 students for the current school year.

Brookwood High School's enrollment appears to have increased to 3,470 students for the current school year.

Meadowcreek High School's enrollment appears to have decreased to 3,153 students for the current school year.

Berkmar High School's enrollment fell noticeably from 3,360 down to 2,853.

Peachtree Ridge High School's enrollment stayed about level, only slightly increasing from 3,159 to 3,186.

Collins Hill High School's enrollment increased slightly from 3,099 to 3,162.

Parkview High School's enrollment also increased slightly from 2,823 to 2,961. What is notable about Parkview is that Parkview's attendance zone has very little higher-density housing (multi-family homes, townhomes, apartments, etc) compared to some other Gwinnett high school clusters where there is an abundance of higher-density, multi-family housing (most notably in the Meadowcreek, Norcross and Berkmar clusters).

The virtual total lack of higher-density multi-family housing might be a major reason why Parkview's student enrollment has yet to eclipse the 3,000-student mark despite Parkview having such a physically large campus.

Gwinnett County Public Schools actually prefers that their high schools not hold many more than 3,000 students.

Though, in an area where the population continues to explode on the strength of African-American transplants from other parts of the country and immigrants from Asia and Latin America who are attracted to Gwinnett because of the very high quality of the county's school system and the large size of the county's existing ethnic communities, keeping enrollment at no more than 3,000 students has proven to be a significant challenge at times.

[sedimenjerry]

Didn't realize it was last year's data. Thanks. I would have expected Brookwood's to increase. I've seen a decent amount of development recently with new homes.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by sedimenjerry

Didn't realize it was last year's data. Thanks. I would have expected Brookwood's to increase. I've seen a decent amount of development recently with new homes.

The thing is the new development has to outpace the increase in empty nesters in older neighborhoods.

Brookwood is probably at the maximum extent of this. Parkview (an area that averages 10-15 years older) I think is just beginning to come out of their maximum extent of the empty-nester phase.


To highlight a point from Born2. Brookwood has no apartments at all. I think this makes it slightly harder to combat the empty-nester phase, but Brookwood has had more room continued SFH development.

Parkview actually does, but it isn't anywhere near on the level as Meadowcreek, Berkmar and the areas bordering I-85 in the southern portions of the county. (Thank God)

There are apartments and a large trailer park along US78 near Park place. There are several apartments along US29. There are several new and old townhome and condo developments in Parkview along US29, especially near the intersection with Jimmy Carter and Harmony Grove Roads. There is also one more old trailer park in this area.

Now in the core of the district away from US29 and 78 is almost all single-family homes. There are several duplex neighborhoods that were built in the late 60s and 70s.

Parkview's main thing is the neighborhoods developed in the 70s and 80s (which makes up a large part of the housing stock) has been at the peak of their empty nester phases. It use to be we would get hand fulls of trick or treaters, but over the last couple of years it has bezome dozens. When I was a kid in this area, it was hundreds with neighborhoods packed full of kids.

A majority of the current enrollment are coming from infill development, the multi-family housing that does exist, and the lower rates of kids in the older SFH neighorhoods. They have also been rezoning new land, particularly in Lilburn city, into Parkview to keep up the enrollment.

In 10-15 years the neighborhoods will stabilize more and there will be more kids (but not what they were like when they were new, chalk full of kids) and they will probably re-adjust the school boundaries back a bit.

I suspect Brookwood will be seeing this more going into the immediate future. They're 10-15 years behind Parkview in terms of development patterns.

It is worth noting that Gwinnett County isn't necessarily trying to limit enrollment to 3000 kids. These schools are built to handle more and they are opting to continue expansions in place of creating even more high schools than they already have. This is part of an efficiency thing. They are able to differentiate the classes and provide more offerings with larger schools. I think the major drawback is actually sports. It can be very competitive. Not every kid that tries hard is guaranteed a spot on many of the athletic programs. At a school with 1500 students, it would be much more obtainable.

[sedimenjerry]

We're certainly seeing empty nesters here as well. Technically my parents became sort of empty nesters back in 2010 when I graduated. I knew many others near my age growing up so there's another dozen or so families that have been empty nesters in the last 5 years. Then there's the ones who had kids near my sisters age. They were empty nesters 10 years ago. Some of them have moved out including one family who's been here since the beginning in the early 90s. Their house now has a family with kids in it. Across the street a new family has come in replacing the family we knew. It's impossible for me to tell just how many empty nesters there will be with each graduating class but they are building new homes at rates I haven't seen since before 2008. Even the infamous abandoned subdivision next to Eastside is getting completely redeveloped (or at least, the land is).