Enrollment
453
Maine · 2024-25 NCES data
High school (grades 9-12) · Bar Harbor, ME
Mt Desert Island High School
Federal NCES profile for Mt Desert Island High School, including enrollment, faculty, free-lunch eligibility, demographics, and resource indicators - Resource Investment Index 53/100.
2024-25 NCES dataHigh school (grades 9-12)NCES 230850000061
👥 S:T ratio 66
📚 AP courses 60
🌟 Gifted program 70
🎓 Counselors 55
📋 Attendance 16
Scored 0–100 from federal NCES and CRDC indicators, resource allocation, not test scores. Full methodology →
The verdict
Mt Desert Island High School earns 53/100 on the Resource Investment Index, with class sizes smaller than 84% of Maine schools.
- 53
- Resource Index · Higher
- 8.5:1
- small classes for Maine
- 9.3%
- free-lunch eligible
- 453
- students enrolled
Mt Desert Island High School has class sizes smaller than 84% of Maine schools. Computed live against every Maine school reporting to NCES.
School address
District: Mt Desert Csd · Maine
NCES ID 230850000061 Verify on NCES CCD record →
Teachers (FTE)
53.0
Federal CCD staff survey
Students per teacher
8.5:1
vs 11.1:1 Maine avg
-23% vs state
Free-lunch eligible
9.3%
vs 34.0% Maine avg
-73% vs state
Student-teacher ratio in context
How Mt Desert Island High School compares with Maine and U.S. medians
What stands out at Mt Desert Island High School
Mt Desert Island High School is a lower-poverty, mid-sized high school in Bar Harbor, Maine, enrolling 453 students.
Class sizes run a bit leaner than typical: 8.5:1 puts it in the smaller third of Maine schools by student-teacher ratio.
Comparatively few students face economic hardship here, 9.3% free-meal eligibility runs 73% below the Maine average.
Enrollment of 453 puts it in the larger third of Maine schools by headcount.
Its Resource Investment Index lands in the upper third of 569 scored Maine schools.
Against 76 statewide peers matched on enrollment and economic need, it ranks in the upper tier at #29.
Its student body is predominantly White (87% of enrollment) (diversity index 24/100).
On the academic-pipeline side it reports 12 Advanced Placement courses.
Counselor coverage is strong, about 227 students per counselor, inside the American School Counselor Association's recommended 250:1.
Chronic absenteeism is elevated: 33.6% of students missed 10% or more of school days (2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection).
Mt Desert Csd operates only this one school, so Mt Desert Island High School has no district-mates to compare against locally.
Sourced from NCES CCD, CRDC, and F-33 (federal records, not a quality verdict). How we source and compute this.
Source: National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data + CRDC + F-33 · 2024-25
How Mt Desert Island High School compares
Mt Desert Island High School on the metrics families compare, against Maine and U.S. means.
| Metric | This school | vs Maine | Maine avg | U.S. avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Students per teacher | 8.5:1 | ▼ 23% | 11.1:1 | 15.7:1 |
| Free-lunch eligible | 9.3% | ▼ 73% | 34.0% | 51.7% |
| Enrollment | 453 | top 20% | - | - |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data School-level CCD + state/national means from Public School Universe · 2024-25
8.5:1
Leaner classes than 94% of US schools, among the more generously staffed nationally.
453
Bigger than 55% of US schools by enrollment, mid-sized for the country.
Equity indicators (what these measure)
Economic need
9.3%
free-lunch eligible
- 73% below the Maine average of 34.0%
Below the 40% Title I threshold, among the lower-need profiles in the state; federal aid targets individual qualifying students rather than schoolwide programs.
Staffing depth
8.5:1
students per teacher
- 23% below state mean
Top 16% in Maine - lower ratio than 84% of state schools
Well under the widely cited 15:1 individualized-attention benchmark, among the leaner class loads nationally.
Engagement
33.6%
chronically absent (missed 10%+ of school days)
At or above 20%, the commonly used threshold for "high" chronic absenteeism, signaling significant barriers to regular attendance.
Funding equity
$22,547
per pupil, district-wide
- above Maine avg of $20,083
Well above the U.S. public-school average, reflecting substantially higher local or state investment per enrolled student.
Support staff
Counselors2.0 FTE
Per 227 students, the combined health-and-guidance staffing load for this school.
Discipline context
5
in-school suspensions + 21 out-of-school
Suspension rate: 1.1 per 100 students. Combined in-school and out-of-school rate: 5.7 per 100 students. Reported via the Civil Rights Data Collection.
Overview
- Common Core of Data (June 2026): enrollment, staffing, and the student-teacher ratio above.
- Civil Rights Data Collection: discipline counts and program access (AP, gifted, special education).
- F-33 School District Finance Survey: the district-wide per-pupil spending figures below.
Three separate federal collections, each on its own reporting cadence - which is why this school's numbers line up on a consistent basis against every other school and state on this site, rather than mixing figures pulled from different survey years.
Student demographics
White 87.2%
Hispanic or Latino 3.8%
Two or More 3.5%
African American 2.9%
Asian 2.2%
American Indian / Alaska Native 0.4%
Largest group: White at 87.2% of enrollment.
Student-body diversity index 23.6/100
Simpson diversity index - at 23.6, Mt Desert Island High School is more mixed than the Maine school average of 20.6.
Programs
AP courses offered 12
Gifted & talented Yes
Funding & spending
District-wide per-pupil expenditure for Mt Desert Csd, which includes Mt Desert Island High School.
$22,547
Per student
+12%
vs Maine
Avg $20,083
+36%
vs U.S.
Avg $16,593
Revenue mix
Local 84.9%
State 11.3%
Federal 3.8%
Source: NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey District-level finance · FY 2021-22 Per-pupil expenditure reflects the district-wide average. Individual school budgets are not reported at the federal level.
Similar high schools statewide
Matched by enrollment size and by staffing ratio across all of Maine, not just this city - a different peer set than the local comparisons above.
Similar enrollment (~453 students)
Next steps
Verify locally before acting on Mt Desert Island High School's federal record.
- Compare Mt Desert Island High School against another school. Compare schools
- Mt Desert Csd's spending and staffing shape this school. District profile
- Confirm current enrollment and boundaries with the school. Choosing guide
Federal record (CCD 2024-25, CRDC 2021-22) - PlainSchools assigns no subjective rating; the composite quality score is a transparent, reproducible index computed from this cited federal data.
Frequently asked questions about Mt Desert Island High School
How many students attend Mt Desert Island High School?
Mt Desert Island High School has 453 students enrolled. It is a high school in Bar Harbor, ME.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Mt Desert Island High School?
The student-teacher ratio at Mt Desert Island High School is 8.5:1, which is 23% lower than the Maine average of 11.1:1 and 46% lower than the national average of 15.7:1. Lower ratios generally mean more individual attention per student.
What percentage of students receive free lunch at Mt Desert Island High School?
9.3% of students at Mt Desert Island High School are eligible for free lunch, compared to the Maine average of 34.0%.
What is the racial and ethnic makeup of Mt Desert Island High School?
The largest demographic group at Mt Desert Island High School is White at 87.2% of enrollment, in Bar Harbor, ME.
What is the Resource Investment Index for Mt Desert Island High School?
Mt Desert Island High School has a Resource Investment Index of 53/100 (higher reported resources relative to schools nationally) based on 5 factors: student-teacher ratio, AP course offerings, counselor availability, attendance rates. Not a test-score or academic measure (national median ~41/100, see methodology).
Is Mt Desert Island High School a good school?
Mt Desert Island High School earns 53/100 on the Resource Investment Index, with class sizes smaller than 84% of Maine schools. This is a resource snapshot, not an academic rating; see the Resource Investment Index question above for what the number does and doesn't measure.
What other schools are in Mt Desert Csd?
None reported; Mt Desert Csd operates only Mt Desert Island High School as a public school district in NCES's records.
Related tools
Every figure on PlainSchools is rendered directly from the source NCES, CRDC and F-33 federal records, no number is typed in by an editor. Each school's figures reflect its most recent NCES/CRDC submission on file. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of June 2026.