Best High Schools in Pittsburgh/Cleveland?

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Anyone know or have a list of these? Public/Private - both are okay. Thank you in advance.</p>

2

<p>They are all in Cleveland, stay away from Pittsburgh. Private: University School, Gilmour, St. Ignatius, and St. Edwards. Public: Shaker Heights, Beachwood, Chargin Falls, and Solon (these are suburban schools there are no good public schools in the city)</p>

3

<p>the hawken school???</p>

4

<p>despite joev’s ‘unbiased’ opinion(!), good Pittsburgh suburban publics include Pine-Richland, North Hills, North Allegheny, Mt. Lebanon, Franklin Regional. Privates might include Winchester-Thurston, Ellis, Shadyside Academy, Sewickley Academy and Kiski Prep (about an hour east of Pgh.)</p>

5

<p>You might add Upper St Clair and Fox Chapel to the Pittsburgh list. Taylor Allerdice has a history of being decent, I believe.</p>

6

<p>I concur with beachy’s and dadx’s posts. You should note, however, that the character of privates are different than the publics, and the character of two publics separated by only a few miles (MtL and USC) are rather different. It really depends on what attributes you are specifically looking for.</p>

7

<p>Good calls, dadx - I forgot about those 2. And yes, although the city schools do suffer from typical urban school district problems in general, Allderdice is one of the city high schools that does have some good programs. Am not sure, though, if enrollment is strictly by geographic residence or you can cross-enroll from anywhere within the school district.</p>

8

<p>I think there are still magnet schools (?) in Pittsburgh city schools. I know some kids who attend a well regarded high school for the performing arts (CAPA) located in the heart of Pittsburgh’s Cultural District (free to city residents, $16K to suburbanites).</p>

<p>Some (or all?) of the public suburban schools will allow students outside of their district’s borders to enroll by paying tuition (I don’t think it’s as much as private tuition, though).</p>

<p>Here’s a link that may help with evaluation and comparison in PA:
<a href=“http://www.pde.state.pa.us/[/url]”>http://www.pde.state.pa.us/&lt;/a&gt;
Click on the link for statistical reports and you’ll get a wealth of relevant data.</p>

9

<p>Add Hampton High School to the list of good schools in Pittsburgh.</p>

10

<p>I’m going to add Chardon HS, about 25 miles east of Cleveland in Geauga county. Competitive in Science Olympiad, Academic Decathlon, Chemistry Olympiad (two kids took the National Exam) and Envirothon (7th place at Canon Envirothon (us/canada))this year. Country enough to also do 4-H. They have added a class to follow Calc BC this year - I think they are running it zero period, but at least the kids can take it there.</p>

11

<p>Chardon is a good school, but in the middle of Amish country and like a 50 minute drive. Plus it snows like a nuclear winter every year. But you can’t beat the maple syrup, and my mom went to Notre Dame Academy so it can’t be that bad. :)</p>

12

<p>Right about the snow, joev! However, our area knows how to deal with it better than many of the closer suburbs.</p>

13

<p>Speaking as a former prep schooler from Pittsburgh…
Ellis is considered to be the best regarding academics and up there overall. All-girls tho.
Shadyside is considered to be the “elite” prep school, still good at academics but lagging in some things and also very into sports.
Winchester-Thurston had a few very bad admissions policies in recent years which drove the school’s reputation down and gave it a feeling that only rich kids who couldn’t go anywhere else went there. The school has started to make quite a comeback since, however.
Sewickley I can’t tell you too much about that one as it was on the other side of town, but it’s considered really up there.
Regarding public schools, I know Fox Chapel’s considered very good but there’s rampant grade inflation. So if you like the idea of a virtual automatic A just for signing up for an AP class… other than that North Allegheney and North Hills are good in the suburbs… if you’re into the arts at all, however, go to CAPA as they’re amazing.</p>

14

<p>Sorry, I just found this. In August 2005, Pittsburgh Business Times (PBT) published a special supplement titled, PBTs’ Guide to Western Pennsylvania Schools. </p>

<p>PBT Honor Roll ranking of top districts: District (County)

  1. Mount Lebanon School District (Allegheny)
  2. Upper Saint Clair Township School District (Allegheny)
  3. Peters Township School District (Washington)
  4. North Allegheny School District (Allegheny)
  5. Hampton Township School District (Allegheny) </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2005/07/18/daily37.html[/url]”>http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2005/07/18/daily37.html&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>Hope this helps!</p>

15

<p>as to the inner-city public schools, allderdice and schenley are probably the best, as long as your child is enrolled in the highest track. if a student is into the arts, there is a good arts high school though the academics aren’t as good. one can only go to their neighborhood high school unless they’re in a magnet program, like engineering or international studies. the good suburban and private schools have already been named</p>

16

<p>oops i forgot to say in the above post i was talking about pittsburgh</p>

17

<p>Like two others said, I have to agree…Hampton High School (and the middle and elementaries) is excellent. They have teachers who know what they’re doing and care about the students. Plus most of the kids are really great.</p>

18

<p>Have to disagree with estar… regarding CAPA. The highest level academic courses (CAS) at the Creative and Performing Arts HS are on par with Shenley and Alderdice, with much small class sizes. Also the 11th grade state achivement tests for CAPA are the highest in the city.</p>

19

<p>My stepbrothers live in Pittsburgh. They say that, in terms of public schools,

  1. Upper St. Clair
  2. Mt. Lebanon
  3. Fox Chapel
  4. Hamptons
  5. Peters Township
  6. North Allegheny</p>

<p>They go to North Hills High School, which they say is declining in its standards</p>

20

<p>I’d add Central Catholic to the Pittsburgh list. If you have a boy, that is.</p>