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Arcadia High School
(626) 821-1711
180 Campus Dr.
Arcadia, CA 91007
Level: 9-12
District: Arcadia Unified School District

Extended Information

In-depth school information including test scores, student stats, parent ratings and reviews for Arcadia High School, Arcadia, CA.

Census Info	Value	Year
Percent Free and Reduced Price Lunch:	8.21%	(2008)
White, non-Hispanic:	19.41%	(2009)
Black, non-Hispanic:	1.72%	(2009)
Hispanic:	10.31%	(2009)
Asian:	65.87%	(2009)
Pacific Islander:	0.05%	(2009)
Native American or Native Alaskan:	0.08%	(2009)
Unspecified:	0.49%	(2009)
Filipino:	2.05%	(2009)

Arcadia High School Ratings Summary

Average Quality Rating	4
Average Principals Rating	3
Average Teachers Rating	4
Average Activities Rating	4
Average Parents Rating	4
Average Safety Rating	4

Arcadia High School Reviews


Posted By: student Quality Score: 5 2007-07-26 “This High School is by far, relative to its size, is one of the best high schools in the country. Its high expectations from its students.” Posted By: student Quality Score: decline 2007-07-01 “This school will either make or break wherever on earth you're applying. The counselors are horrible, but the teachers are either really really great or they don't teach at all. The school's pretty much divided into 50% good teachers and horrible teachers. (Mrs. Swift is the best though!)” Posted By: parent Quality Score: 2 2009-08-31 “It's not the worst school per se. It's extremely over-rated. The counselors are pretty bad. They work so slowly. Very inefficient. The bitter secretary is so rude most of the time. Most of the teachers are nice and responsible.” Posted By: parent Quality Score: 4 2009-07-19 “Students are better than the teachers. Lots of politics get in the way of teaching, especially in the English department.” Posted By: student Quality Score: 3 2009-05-30 “The truth is that in this school pressure to excel comes from students and parents, as befitting the Asian culture(s). Not from teachers. After having attended this high school, I feel that one could replace all the teachers with unionized chimpanzees, and the test scores wouldn't slide. Bottom line is that if a student could excel here, he could excel anywhere, and I think my parents overpaid just for the privilege of bragging to their other Asian friends that their children go to AHS. The only thing i could say about the school is that as an Asian student, for the first time in my life in the US, I am no longer a part of a 'small minority,' in this school. This is not a bad schoo, per se, just highly overrated. Asians (of which I am) value brand names, which this school is, nothing more.” Posted By: parent Quality Score: 2 2009-04-27 “yes, agree with you. The students are running the schools. Not the administrators or office staff.” Posted By: teacher Quality Score: 1 2009-03-16 “I worked there for many years. There is much chaos and little accountability for both the administrators and the support staff. I felt that they were doing an injustice to the students and parents.” Posted By: parent Quality Score: 1 2009-03-04 “This school is bragging about how many teachers they are hiring at this tough economy time. It has some good teachers. They students are very very smart and they are mostly aiming at Ivy league universities. The counseling department and the office staff always encourage everyone going to community college. Because they don't want to write letter or rec and do paper work for students. They have no advice for my students and don't have much knowledge about AP and universities. The students are running the schools. Not the administrators or office staff. The office generally has a very low morale where students and parents are bring talked down and put down. Avoid the office. Hold you breathe and stay away.” Posted By: parent Quality Score: decline 2008-12-10 “AHS is a great school, but the teacher are either really really good or really really horrible, some teacher don't know how to teach. Another bad thing in this school is you can't change your classes, that's very bad , expecially when you unlucky have the teacher who doesn't know how to teach. You have to stay in class learn nothing, just wasting your time and straggle” Posted By: other Quality Score: 3 2008-12-05 “The school was safe when I attended and compared to the stories I have heard from people I come in contact with, it was a better school than most. I will say, even for myself who has a BA, I don't think this school prepares non-college bound students for anything other than failure. There is not a single vocational or trade class to be found, unless woodshop counts. I personally struggle and have struggled with a career path because of the lack of classes geared toward a student not bound for a 4 year college. Parents HAVE to talk with their students at AHS about what they might enjoy doing for a career, because the school wont help.” Posted By: parent Quality Score: 2 2008-11-09 “Is it a understaffed counseling department or an overstaffed but unwilling to work hard counseling department? You parents be the judge. It is a school with very very good teachers and amazingly hardworking students!! Staff working in the office need to learn to respect parents especially those who are new immigrants. There are many complains about the attitude of the secretaries and counselors among us parents but we didn't file official complain to the school. They are horrible and difficult to deal with. Please don't have high expectations in the office. Hold your grudge because these people will never improve! There is no motivation for them to improve; they are already overpaid and are backed up by their union!” Posted By: student Quality Score: 4 2008-11-03 “Given the sheer enormity of the student body, the understaffed counseling department, and the hit-or-miss quality of the teachers, it is really up to the AHS student to make your own way in this environment. Staying in the honors/AP track through graduation and having good luck with scheduling teachers is key though. If you can't test into the honors classes from the beginning, you soon get lost far behind. My senior year, I decided to drop from AP English into regular English, and the difference was drastic. The curriculum being covered for the majority of the semester had been covered in my freshman year honors class. However, the 'Asian bubble' does equate with healthy intellectual competition and a safe environment. True, we're not an especially great athletic school, but the range of our other high performing extracurricular activities brought more value to me personally than some football team.” Posted By: parent Quality Score: decline 2008-10-21 “The school dose not show awareness or value the cultural and linguistic diversity in the school. The administrators are conservative politicians. This is a place where staff strive for personal and political interests but not the best interests of the children in Arcadia. The staff like to 'work smart' instead of 'work hard'. This is a belief coming fron the counseling department. While other neigboring school districts respect and value the diversity while gainning credebility from thier parents. Arcadia school district has a decline in their 'used to be' good reputations. People began to consider putting their student in private schools instead. There are reasons for it.” Posted By: parent Quality Score: 5 2008-09-29 “My child is in AHS right now and the staff as a whole are great. Counselors are easy to talk to and are very helpful, emailing them and setting appointments are the best way rather than walk-ins. Teachers are more than willing to have open communication on how to help the students.” Posted By: student Quality Score: 1 2008-09-24 “It is a school comprised of high achieving students. They are extremely hardworking and most of them have more that one private tutors to help them. That's why their test scores are so high. The high test score is absolutely not a results of the so called guidance counseling staff, AP nor the teachers. Students have to seek knowledge about colleges and AP information by themselves. The school fascilities are horrible. Football players for instance has no water to bath after practice in the morning. Can you imagine the kids have nowhere to eat at lunch? They eat with chipmunks on the dirty lawn.” Posted By: student Quality Score: 4 2008-09-08 “Great school for the most part. However, I want to echo what several stated in regards to the school's English department not successfully preparing students for the kind of writing necessary for the UCs. I speak in regards to AHS's English department from the basis of its standard English classes, by the way. It was a real shock for me when I took my very first actual college-level English class at my UC. The difference and expectations are simply leagues apart. I m good enough now to the point that I can get As on essays and research papers, but if it wasn t for my friend and some of the university s instructors, I would have easily failed all of my English classes on my first year of college. Ridiculous; such a shocking gap should never have existed in the first place. The difference between AHS and college-level English material is essentially the difference between a 12th grader and someone in the 8th grade.” Posted By: parent Quality Score: 1 2008-06-05 “The students are so motivated and hardworking. The parents are so involved with their children's education. Many great teachers in the school. However, the counselor department continues to be the worst of all. They are a pain in the neck for anyone possible. Even though they have 13 counselors, it is still impossible to meet with the counselor for individual meeting. They are always on the phone or away from their desks everytime you attempt to talk to them. My children are in 10th grade and 11th grade. Are they really this busy? I seriously doubt it. 13 counselors but even less availability. They are incompetentand and unprofessional. I can voice out my opinions, but what can the school do about their attitude towards students and parents? I guess only lawsuit will make changes!” Posted By: student Quality Score: 5 2008-02-07 “The overall environment and atmosphere of AHS pushes you to do your best. It's hard not to follow the crowd and get into college and score high on exams. The social aspect is challenging but so is the real world. AHS is an excellent stepping stone for the next best thing.” Posted By: student Quality Score: 4 2007-06-01 “Although AHS is about 110% overpopulated (no joke, we calculated this in class), it is still one of the top schools in the nation. The school is very competitive considering the number of students we have. good: plenty of class to choose from, excellent art & performing art program, very nice sports field, you'll always make new friends, offer the most AP test in California, and the city is pretty wealthy. bad: the teachers are either really good or horrible, the sports teams are either really good or just loosing the whole way, definitely not enough counselors, the new principles isn't really helping the school, overpopulation, and not enough diversity what-so-ever.” Posted By: student Quality Score: 5 2007-05-15 “Great school...If i had to choose what high school to go to...I would choose Arcadia..Again” Posted By: former student Quality Score: 4 2007-01-21 “I was a former student at Arcadia High School, and I can definitely say that it was an honor to attend such a good school. The music program is one of the finest in the nation and academics are challenging and tough, but it really prepares you for college. The teachers are either really good or really bad. The school needs more counselors, when I was there, it was something like 1 counselor to 1 grade...and they were never there to help with personal issues because they were too busy with student's schedules and such. Another downfall is that the school does not give you enough time to change classes...especially when the campus is huge.” Posted By: student Quality Score: 5 2007-01-06 “One of my greatest failures in life so far is not attending Arcadia High School. This school is simply the best in terms of everything. A boatload of AP classes marks an excellent academic program, and academics are further embellished by what is possibly the best extra curricular activities in the world. This school has a marching band that is second to none. With more than 400 members, the band is not only one of the largest anywhere, but it is also one of the very best. The band attened the Rose Parade 12 times, it represented the state of CA in the 2004-2005 Inauguaration Parade, and it won so many prestigious awards that it is impossible to count. And being a member of this band is uber easy- there no try-outs. In addition to band, Arcadia also hosts the Arcadia Invitational - the world's largest and most presitigous highschool track-and-field-meet....” Posted By: parent Quality Score: 5 2006-05-29 “My niece attended this school while living with me and she loved it. She was involved in many activities such as ORCA and dance. There are many students and lots of help from teachers and staff.” Posted By: former student Quality Score: 4 2006-05-17 “Strong and competitive academic programs in general. Social science department is generally very strong- lots of great ones in there! Music department is large and strong; every student is in band or orchestra or choir. Parents are relatively very involved. Math and science offer a lot of different classes for all levels, but are just so-so in terms of college prep. Definitely need more counselors! They are always overburdened and don't have the time to give out the necessary college advice.” Posted By: former student Quality Score: 4 2006-05-07 “Rigourous academic environment. Lack of school counselors. Wide range of academic achievement available. Very Competitive.” Posted By: parent Quality Score: 5 2006-04-15 “Great school but competitive.” Posted By: parent Quality Score: 4 2006-03-31 “This is a really great school in a really great district. I hightly recommend it.” Posted By: parent Quality Score: 4 2006-03-26 “This school is been very great in acadamic and also it has great sport programs, the parents are very involved in school activities.” Posted By: parent Quality Score: 4 2006-02-08 “A fine school with lots of extra curricular activities. The music department is amazing. Good area to live but very expensive due to the credibility of this school.” Posted By: parent Quality Score: 5 2006-01-30 “Great school! Great teachers and great facilities!” Posted By: student Quality Score: 5 2006-01-15 “Lots of parent involvment. Lots of academic clubs and extra activities. Success is the object of this school. People are motivated to better on their own due to the competition at this school. Classes are amazing and the school is great.” Posted By: former student Quality Score: 4 2006-01-05 “I went to this high school for grades 9-12 and felt my overall experience was valuable. AHS had a good variety of courses, but the quality of teaching was not consistent. Some teachers were excellent and continue to have an impact on my life, while some were as useless as a tree stump. This is definitely a place where you can make the best of your talent - plenty of my friends went to top notch colleges. Our athletic program was mediocre, our campus needed improvement, but my peers provided a thoroughly challenging experience in the classroom. For being such a large school, this is a school with high standards, and ambitious students.” Posted By: parent Quality Score: 4 2005-12-23 “Very large high school where it's easy for a child to get lost if they aren't connected to sometype of group, be it sports, clubs or the incredibily well represented band. Many fine teachers, and some incredibly terrible ones. Unfortunately, if your child gets one of the 'nightmare' teachers, they're stuck for the semester--no changes allowed. College counseling is done in mass in the high school auditorium (1 counselor per grade level). Nevertheless, academic competition is very high, fueled by the primarily Asian student body. YOur child can get a world class education here, but be warned that the sheer size and lack of counseling present challenges and demand that the student have plenty of parental support to succeed.” Posted By: parent Quality Score: 4 2005-12-23 “Arcadia High School is a good school, though literally bursted at the seems because of the large student body.” Posted By: student Quality Score: 5 2005-06-12 “The curriculum at Arcadia High is very rigorous. Arcadia expects on the the best out of its student. Extremely competitive academically, it is practically expected that the kids take AP courses. They are prepared for them well and Arcadia has a long history of excellence. A 'B' at Arcadia would no doubt be an 'A' at practially any other school.” Posted By: student Quality Score: 4 2005-05-17 “Arcadia High School offers a big variety on AP Classes as well as a plethora of different sports, clubs, and programs. Parents are not particularly involved although the PTA do try it's best. The majority of students are Asian Americans and many immigrants are coming in droves to this high school causing it to become severly overpopulated. Arcadia students are highly motivated and most go on to attend 4 year universities, and almost all take the SAT's.” Posted By: former student Quality Score: 4 2004-02-20 “I agree with the parent who made the Nov 03 comment that the school does not adequately prepare students for college writing. I graduated from AHS in the 90s and took several AP classes in both the sciences and the humanities. I got 5's on all but one, for which i got a 4. I went on to UC Berkeley and am currently pursuing a PhD at Stanford (humanities). AHS has some wonderful teachers and gave me a good, diverse base of learning from which to begin my undergraduate studies. However, i did feel myself to be at a disadvantage in the first few years of college learning the fundamentals of academic writing and basic research skills. clearly students who arrived in college w/such training under their belts had a big head start.” Posted By: student Quality Score: 5 2005-04-16 “I am currently a student at Arcadia High School as a freshman (9th grade). Our school is 75% Asian (I'm russian) and because of the Asian culture where grades are highly important, they raise our school's rank. Our SAT scores are very high. I, personally love the school and I am enrolled in plentiful honors and AP classes and most of the teachers are very good. Drug, smoking, and alcohol level are one of the lowest you could find out of any schools. Joke: 'Guest asks: what was the toughest discipline problem? teacher answers: umm...a student didn't want to sit down...' The guest probably expected something related to violence. New students feel very welcome. I was a translator for a new russian girl and now we are best friends. I highly recommend this school! If you have any questions please feel free to email me.” Posted By: parent Quality Score: decline 2005-04-08 “Physically, the campus of Arcadia HS is run down. With about 4000 kids attending, it is somewhat understandable. However, Arcadia is a wealthy community, and it would seem that the HS should be a showcase in addition to it's academic, athletic and extra-curricular high standards.” Posted By: former student Quality Score: 5 2005-01-14 “Excellent academic programs, but getting overcrowded compared with 10 years ago.” Posted By: former student Quality Score: 3 2004-10-31 “I feel that students are not challenged enough at this school.” Posted By: parent Quality Score: 4 2004-09-02 “My children have done very well in the Arcadia school system. The teachers are well trained and dedicated to our students. I think the high school has an excellent parent support program with the PTSA keeping parents current and informed as well as encouraging us to participate in our children's education.” Posted By: former student Quality Score: 5 2004-04-28 “I'm a former student of Arcadia High and I can honestly say that this is the best school for your kids to attend. Its a comfortable environment and the teachers and staff care for each student. The security level is excellent and you can send your child without worries. I have had great experience attending Arcadia High and I'm proud to be a graduate of this school. Hope you all enjoy it as well. Thanks.” Posted By: parent Quality Score: 4 2004-04-16 “Although most of the teachers at AHS are good teachers, far too many are lackluster. Parents and students know the good, the bad, and the ugly. The bad and the ugly are unfortunately shielded by the overall school scores, which is a reflection of a combination of quality teaching by some, and tutoring to compensate for the weaknesses of the others. Those teachers who really do their job well prove that it can be done! Those who consistently underperform need to be weeded out!” Posted By: student Quality Score: 5 2004-03-31 “I am not a parent i am a student. I think that Arcadia High School is a great facility to send your child to. We have great teachers and great students. Our SAT scores are above average, and our college admissions are many. If your thinking about sending your child to AHS - think no more send them.” Posted By: other Quality Score: 4 2003-11-25 “Arcadia High's English department, unfortunately, like most high schools, do not sufficiently prepare their students for college writing. They thoroughly prepare their students for SAT II tests, AP exams, and etc. They teach according to the material that will be presented on tests. They fail to teach in a manner that will make their students well-rounded writers, and well-prepared for college. Without a doubt, AHS has more resources, AP classes, extracurriculars than nearly every other school, turning out more graduates headed to college than an average high school. It is a privilege for many to be able to attend AHS. But that doesn't mean AHS can't make changes, or that it doesn't need changes. What happened to AHS motto of 'Simply the best and getting better'? AHS has problems that it needs to deal with and changes it needs to make. Let's recognize the problems and seek to make that motto a reality.” Posted By: other Quality Score: 5 2003-11-10 “It's quite ironic to see the parent above rant about the quality of Arcadia High School's English Department when she herself has multiple grammatical errors, one that should not be made by a high school student, much less an adult. Now, the educational system in general is never flawless; the essence of education falls not only on the shoulders of one's school system, but also upon one's own shoulders. You cannot expect any school, no matter how prestigious or celebrated, to educate every single child to the level of any Ivy League school. Plainly, we all know that is not true, for it just isn't possible to set such outrageous expectations. I'm sure this is absolutely horrifically rude of me, but if your children aren't writing up to the standards of the UC system, or any school for that matter, are you implying that it is completely the school's fault and not your children's? What the school offers has nothing to do with how successful your children will be; I'm sure by now you have successfully reasoned that what I have been trying to say is that if your child isn't as successful as you would hope, don't be so quick to use the school's educational system as your scapegoat. I am currently attending Arcadia High School, and I comment on behalf of my parents.” Posted By: parent Quality Score: 5 2003-08-26 “I have had 2 daughters graduate from AHS. They both took the AP classes for Calculus, English, Spanish, History. I have no complaints about any of the teachers, nor do my daughters. They prepared them very well for college entrance.” Posted By: parent Quality Score: 5 2003-08-25 “All three of my children had very positive academic and social experiences at AHS. None of them ever had any problems with their writing skills! They were very well prepared from elementary school on through high school. Because of its enrollment size, however, it is imperative for parents to be involved in the multitude of activities in which their children are participating... including the academics and particularly if English is a second language. In these days of massive budget cuts and increasing class size, teachers can only do so much in assessing each student. Parents must assume responsibility for a child's learning and effort.” Posted By: parent Quality Score: 5 2003-08-19 “I must disagree with a few of the points made by the previous comment. Both of my daughters attended Arcadia High School for four years and I can assure you they were taught how to write complete sentences. There is a problem with learning how to write different types of essays, but not with writing thesis sentences or topic sentences. The English department could be improved, but they definitely do not have a problem teaching the basic necessities.” Posted By: parent Quality Score: 4 2003-08-11 “Arcaduia High School's instructors who teach English are not very great. They are great interepretor although they are not good writers. Noone expects them to be perfect but at least try their best. What's their best? That's the question. An answer for that question is that the high school require a very qualified English teacher who can teach students how to write different types of college writings because Arcadia High School graudates, though high in verbal and math score, still cannot write well developed college essays. The high school's students are in danger if they don't know different types of essay writing styles. For personal example, one of my daughters took English honor during her sophomore year and one of my sons took regular English for four years in the high school. Yet, they still cannot write a well developed essay, like college level's essays. They do not even know what outlines and clustering are. Before they write essays, outlines and clustering give ideas for a well developed essay. Since they don't know how to create an outline and clustering, how can they develop a well written essay? So, when they took the subject exams, they were put back to lower division English classes in UCLA and Cal State Long Beach. Really, I am pleased to see that the high school teachers are very excellent in mathematics, such as AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics, and in sciences, such as AP Physics, AP Biology, and AP Chemistry; however, the high school needs to focus a little more in English. Arcadia High School is simply the 'best' and is 'getting better' only if it is focusing more on English this time, for Arcadia High School's teachers are only great in Math and Science.”