Topeka High

As a large four-year high school in Topeka, Kansas, Topeka High teaches 1,578 students from grades 9 through 12, overseen by Topeka Public Schools. By comparison, Kansas's public schools average about 410 students each, so Topeka High sits 285% larger than that benchmark.

Topeka High is one of 25 schools operated by Topeka Public Schools, a district that enrolls 11,695 students overall.

Looking at the student body, Topeka High records that the largest single group is Hispanic at 43%, but no single group is in the majority. The remainder breaks down as 32% White, 13% multiracial, 11% Black. By comparison, Shawnee County as a whole is about 14% Hispanic, so the school skews considerably more Hispanic than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, Staff filings list 108 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 14.7:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 11.9:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. An estimated 67% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. By comparison, Shawnee County runs at roughly 54%, so the school's eligibility rate is meaningfully above the surrounding baseline.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Topeka High performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 29.9%, the actual is 21.0%, a residual of -8.9 points.

In the broader community, Shawnee County reports that the typical household earns roughly $67,104 per year, roughly 32% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 9% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Topeka High is one of 54 public schools in Shawnee County (combined enrollment of about 26,294 students).

The closest other public school is Lowman Hill Elem, roughly 0.7 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 9 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Topeka High ranks 7th on composite proficiency, behind the local average of 28.5%.

Geographically, the school is in an inner-city area.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count contracted 7%: 1,698 students in 2018 compared to 1,578 in 2025. The Hispanic share of enrollment edged up from 33% to 43% over that span.

Within the allk12 community for this school, members of the Topeka High community share and discuss science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.