Summary:
ZIP code 66605 has one listed high school: Highland Park High, which serves grades 9–12, enrolls 835 students and is part of Topeka Public Schools. The most important finding for parents is that its 2025–26 proficiency rates were well below Kansas averages in all three subjects: 14% in ELA, 8% in math and 8% in science, compared with 46%, 41% and 38% statewide.
Highland Park High is both the highest- and lowest-performing school in this local list simply because it is the only one; there are no other listed schools for a meaningful comparison. Its strongest result is graduation: 93% of students graduated in 2023–24, 4 percentage points above the state and 11 points above the district. By contrast, the school’s proficiency gaps were 32 points in ELA, 33 in math and 30 in science. Attendance is also a concern: chronic absenteeism was 36% in 2025–26, 18 points above the state and 12 points above the district.
Recent academic results show different directions by subject: math proficiency rose from 4% in 2024–25 to 8% in 2025–26, while ELA fell from 17% to 14%; the math gap with the state narrowed by 2 points, while the ELA gap widened by 5. SchoolDigger ranked the school 327 of 340 statewide in 2025–26, placing it in the 4th percentile with 0 stars; its percentile rankings of 5th, 3rd and 4th over the last three years indicate a persistently low statewide standing, not a clear upward trend. The school’s student-teacher ratio is 14.3, and 80% of students receive free or reduced-price lunch; these figures provide context, not an explanation for results.
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