Arcadia High School: National Excellence

Arcadia High School. – Courtesy Photo

By May S. Ruiz

The city of Arcadia in the western San Gabriel Valley is well-known for its excellent school district. Arcadia High School (AHS) has consistently won accolades for its academic prowess and its students are known to do exceedingly well in national standardized exams. Newsweek’s America’s Top High Schools recently named it one of the most elite in the country and U.S. News and World Report has awarded it the Gold Medal thrice.

It would come as no surprise that several academic teams – the Constitution, Mathematics, Physics, Mock Trial, Speech and Debate Teams – and competitions – the Academic Decathlon, Destination Imagination, National Ocean Sciences Bowl, National Science Bowl, Physics Bowl, Quiz Bowl, Science Olympiad, Solar Cup – all call Arcadia High School home. About 250 students compete on eight state and national award-winning academic teams. Its nationally recognized 386-member Apache Marching Band and Colorguard were 2014 SCSBOA champions for division 6A.

In 2006, a $218M bond measure was passed to fund upgrades and repairs for Arcadia schools. It provided for a new Student Services Center for the high school, a two-story structure that houses general and special education classrooms, graphic design and digital photography classrooms, three computer labs, a television studio, and the career center and health, counseling and administrative offices. Funds also went into building the Science Center which has chemistry labs with preparation areas and collegiate-style biology and physics classrooms separated by lecture rooms.

A 40,000-square-foot state-of-the art Performing Arts Center opened in 2012 on the northwest corner of the high school. It boasts ground level and mezzanine seating for 1,200 and a stage that accommodates 150 musicians.

With a total student enrollment of 3,665, and a teaching staff of 148, AHS has a student/teacher ratio of 25:1. It attracts the most qualified professionals – a majority of its teachers hold terminal degrees. They are tasked with imparting knowledge on a vast array courses that include 19 APs. The high school’s four counselors provide advice and guidance to about 1,000 seniors each year.

According to Ryan Foran of the Arcadia Unified School District, AHS’s class of 2015 had 31 National Merit Scholarship semi-finalists. The 847 seniors earned an average of 3.3 GPA, an average of 1898 on the SAT, and an average of 29.2 on the ACT. Seventy-two percent of graduates went on to a four-year college or university (up about two percent from last year); 21 percent attended a two-year college; one-and-a-half percent joined the military; and one percent attended an international college or university.

Two of the 2015 graduates were accepted to Yale and one to Harvard. Several seniors were accepted to highly selective universities including Princeton, Cornell, Dartmouth, Stanford, MIT, UC Berkeley, Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, NYU, Northwestern, Pratt, Claremont McKenna, USC and UCLA.

Some of the most popular colleges and universities among the 2015 seniors were: Cal Poly Pomona: 120 accepted, 21 attended; Cal Poly San Luis Obispo: 95 accepted, 36 attended; Cal State LA: 118 accepted, 29 attended; Citrus College: 35 attended; PCC: 189 attended; UC Berkeley: 44 accepted, 26 attended; UC Riverside 231 accepted, 46 attended; UC Santa Barbara: 114 accepted, 22 attended; UC Irvine: 117 accepted, 22 attended, and USC: 44 accepted, 22 attended.

As its university matriculation clearly shows, Arcadia High School has consistently produced outstanding graduates the city is surely proud of.

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