Scarsdale High School


Scarsdale High School is a public high school in Scarsdale, New York, United States, a coterminous town and village in Westchester County, New York. It is a part of the Scarsdale Union Free School District.
The school was founded in 1917. In its very first selection process, the United States Department of Education named Scarsdale High School as "one of the 144 exemplary schools to which others may look for patterns of success." According to a study done for U.S. News & World Report, Scarsdale High School is in the nation's top 100 for math and science.
From the graduating class of 2017, 98% continued their education with college programs, and 97% entered four-year national and international colleges and universities. Thirteen students in the class of 2017 were named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists, and 27 students received National Merit Letters of commendation. Between 2007 and 2009, Scarsdale High School made a transition from Advanced Placement to Advanced Topics courses.
In the 2017-18 school year, SHS had a professional staff of 156 with a median teaching experience of 19 years. 99% of the faculty held a master's degree, 81% had 30 credits or more beyond a master's, and 4% had doctorate degrees. The student faculty ratio is 11.66 to 1, and its teachers have one of the highest paying salaries in the country: 44% had a base-salary of over $100,000 in 2005.
The school is 14.7% Asian, 1.4% Black, 7.8% Hispanic, 68.4% White and 5.7% other.

Japanese population

Around 1986 only 5% of the school was of Asian origins. By 1991 large numbers of Japanese students enrolled at Scarsdale High because their fathers, on business assignments from Japanese companies, moved to Scarsdale for the quality of the schools. By that year almost 20% of the students were of Asian origins, most of them being of Japanese origins and a few being of Chinese and Korean origins. The school established an English as a second language program to help Japanese students adjust. Initially the Japanese students faced hostility from many of the American students, and some Japanese students had hostility towards classmates they felt were becoming too Americanized and/or socialized too much with Americans. Therefore, the Japanese and American students socialized separately. Principal Judy Fox formed the Multicultural Steering Committee to try to resolve racial tensions within the school.

Notable alumni