Arcadia High School

180 Campus Drive

School District

Arcadia Unified
Grade

9-12
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:24
Type

public

School Map for Arcadia Unified School District

GreatSchools Rating

The school rating calculation is based on four ratings: the Student Progress Rating or Academic Progress Rating, College Readiness Rating, Equity Rating, and Test Score Rating each designed to show different facets of school success. Learn more about GreatSchools Ratings

Reviews

Submitted by other on December 15, 2023

Arcadia high school is a relatively good public school with an adequate amount of resources that prepares high school students for college. However, there seems to be this toxic culture in this school. As someone who moved to Arcadia from China (which is normal due to high amount of Asian population in this community), I felt like I was never able to mix in this school. Half of school population is either Chinese or Taiwanese descendants, but apparently these Asian American students looked down on students like me who are recent immigrants and speak English with an unavoidable accent. Arcadia is a community that receives a vast amount of immigration due to its location in Los Angeles. However, I never felt welcomed in this school. I rarely met anyone who is willing to my friend or listen to my stories. High school students create hierarchical social ladders in their community, and I was unwillingly dumped at the bottom of the food chain. This puts me to disadvantage in club activities and extracurriculars (which are important for college application) because people don't even bother to socialize with me. I eventually made some friends after reinventing myself, which was a complete blood bath. Arcadia High school is a place that someone people went for 4 years and felt like they never belonged. I believe a lot of alums share the same feelings as me. Their microagressive condescendence to recent immigrants from China stems from school to the town itself. This unwelcoming culture to outsiders is truly suffocating!
Submitted by parent on March 30, 2023

I attended AHS and my son does too, and this place really hasn't changed. Even back in the day when I came here, AHS had a reputation: stuck-up, superficial, rich, entitled. Teachers here don't really help students and don't really teach; my son comes home and apparently, they just watch a bunch of videos (he's in honors and AP classes). They don't care if they fall behind or struggle, or if they do, they don't have the time/energy resources to actually help. They offer office hours, which doesn't really help, because they basically turn it around on the parent, as if we're not doing enough and helping them, or they don't really address the problem. Students are essentially told to pound out the AP classes and extracurriculars at the expense of everything else, e.g., being kind, being decent, helping others, and my son has already had the unfortunate experience of dealing with peers who demean and bully him. It's to the point where he hates going to school now. I enrolled my son here, thinking the school had changed, and that the "quality education" and ratings the district everyone raves about outweigh everything else. I regret it; I would NOT recommend this school to anyone; the culture here is so unbelievably unhealthy and really doesn't prepare teens for life outside of the bubble that is Arcadia.
Submitted by other on March 24, 2023

The school motto should be, “Only success is important — everything else is a bonus.” AHS… well, it had plenty of various classes and clubs and activities and teams… but due to the number of students, it’s extremely hard to stand out in any way. Moreover, and this is based on my own unique experience, it’s hard to form and maintain bonds/connections with other people. I left school for a semester due to a serious medical situation. One or maybe two people reached out during that time. When I came back, barely anyone had noticed my absence. (You’d think people I’ve known since kindergarten, or elementary school, or middle school would’ve noticed, but in a crowd of 3000+ ppl, I guess not.) My former friends had moved on, engaged in their own activities and the like. I had been in intermediate theater when I left — not a single person had reached out to ask me where I went. Oh and best of all, when I reached out to him via email, Volpe (the theater teacher) refused to even let me audition for advanced theater with my classmates, instead “graciously” offering me the opportunity to retake the intermediate class without bothering to find out the reason for my unexplained absence. This was after I had spent the previous semester committing a RIDICULOUS number of hours to his precious theater, by which I mean — I was not cast in any play, yet I had to devote 6-ish hours after school every day of the tech weeks just BEING there bc we were obligated to be on a tech/set/sound/or costume crew, even if there was literally NOTHING for us to do). The counselor I worked with after coming back was kind, and she had some good advice for me, but few of the teachers tried to understand why I suddenly had difficulties with memory, and headaches, and all that. That’s another issue with such a gigantic school: don’t get me wrong, it’s not like all of the teachers don’t care at all, but they simply don’t have the time/energy/resources to care about each student, nor to take the time to help those who need support, educational or otherwise. In short, it’s an extremely competitive environment where doing anything less than the absolute maximum is not enough. To stand out, one must devote all of one’s time to as many clubs and extracurriculars as possible. Oh, and get straight A’s in the 4-5 AP classes one’s taking. The mentality that’s cultivated by both (some) teachers and (many) students (and presumably admin & parents) is not particularly healthy.
Submitted by student on March 17, 2023

Class 2022 of Arcadia High School, This school has the best atmosphere for learning and great teachers. The students are nice and the competition between students is not as bad as some parents described. For student's social emotional supports, theres special meets for you during school time if you need. Music department is AMAZING, the best PAC building and wonderful choir teacher. Definetly Recommanded.
Submitted by other on September 07, 2019

Excellent! My days at Arcadia High are among the happiest of my life. Teachers and counselors really cared about me as an individual. The academics were tough, but stellar.
Submitted by student on March 16, 2019

Arcadia High is a decent school. As a predominantly Asian school, the environment here is extremely competitive, which can definitely encourage students to push their limits for success.
Submitted by student on February 08, 2019

Pretty good. Students respect and praise different cultures.
Submitted by parent on January 16, 2018

Arcadia High school has the worst counseling department. The counselors probably waste their time in paperwork instead invest their time with students. They are not professionals.
Submitted by parent on September 03, 2015

The Arcadia Educational Foundation is always asking for money to save the teachers. But school has money to hire four assistant principals. The district has money to hire three assistant superintendents. The best one yet is that they have money to hire a public relations person. Where is their priority? They have enough money, just not the discipline to allocate appropriately. Maybe it is time to vote in a new set of board members who will truly look after the students and not the bloated administration.
Submitted by parent on January 28, 2015

The school needs to find a way of controlling the number of students coming in from neighboring cities. It has reached a level where it has become unmanageable. Parents really need to bring this to the school's attention.
Submitted by parent on January 26, 2015

The school is overcrowded mostly because there are a lot of people from Monrovia and Duarte attending. The administration is managing by crisis. What a mess.
Submitted by student on January 24, 2015

Not sure how this school was like 6-24 years ago, but I keep faith our school is improving over the years. Our administrative and counseling aren't after all bad this year! We're getting to improvements from 1 counselor or each different groups/weak counseling team into 2 counselors in each different group, and from a weak and arrogant administrative into really nice and sympathetic people! As far as we're improving (especially teachers improve), our administrative can still investigate on more "bad teachers" that need to actually be fired or downgraded to substitutes (to try to sound nicer) and bringing in better/more capable teachers. They as well can add more supervisors/securities to our campus and locker rooms, plus improving some of our "old" facilities. As far as our Counseling team has increased and improved, we can still add in more counselors (like 1 or 2 more) so they have less names to learn and have more time to assist students with their needs... Otherwise, overall, Arcadia High School is one capable school, if we continue more thorough investigations and if more reforms can be made, but I'm still glad to be an Arcadia High School Apache! ;-)
Submitted by parent on July 28, 2014

Great teachers, hardworking students, modern campus in a nice community. If the student is willing work hard, he or she will be rewarded with a great education.
Submitted by student on May 23, 2014

I'm a student of the Class of 2014 so I'm literally going to graduate very soon from this school. I was never competitive -- I'm a procrastinator in fact and I haven't joined many clubs or extracurricular activities compared to the others of my year, but I really think it's a great school. Sure some teachers don't teach (or know how to), but the many teachers that do know how to teach and teach extraordinarily amazingly make it up. Plus, the many activities a person can do here brings everyone together -- I literally made friends with people upon first meeting here. The student body's not only overall friendly and united, but more diverse than what one would expect from a somewhat Asian-dominated place. We're rivals, but that doesn't stop us all from reaching out and being friends. There's no bullying here. There's a lot of resources here, too, and though I never been to the counselors before, they do have a lot of pamphlets and career information in the Career Center. Don't forget that the Arcadia Public Library which has an enormous source of information is just across the street, available to anyone who needs it. The giant Arcadia Park and Golf Course is too. Great environment.
Submitted by parent on February 24, 2014

AHS offers many quality clubs, classes and sports opportunities for students. As others have said AHS offers both excellent teachers and some exceptionally poor ones. The counselors have improved. However, as others have also mentioned, the administration, starting with Principal Forsee, is a major weak point. They are arrogant, unfriendly, and you have to wonder how many of them are out for either students, teachers, or parents. Sometimes, it feels like an us against them environment. After interacting with them recently, I've given serious thought to taking my kids out and putting them into a private school.
Submitted by other on October 26, 2013

Graduated from this school last year, going to a good college out of state- but that was out of my own personal efforts. The school itself has it's share of great and horrible teachers, some really push students to do their best, some don't care at all. Hi level competition can be a good thing, pushes some students to excel in academics, sports, and clubs, but also causes other students to become depressed or give up on trying. The administration is horrible, administrators claim credit for the achievements of students and remove staff who don't fit their narrow-minded perspective of high school(look up coach Jim Obrien)
Submitted by other on August 25, 2013

Great teachers, great learning environment, but extremely competitive due to the overwhelming number of students.
Submitted by parent on August 03, 2013

The school has many stuck-up students and teachers that don't care about their students' progress.
Submitted by student on October 01, 2012

I love AHS, I really do. Sure you do have to push yourself to try your hardest, but isn't that a positive trait? I am a lot better off than some of my friends who went to MHS or TCHS who are now struggling in college because they were never taught to push themselves to take APs or higher level courses. Honestly, college is a breeze for me because all the classes I've taken have for the last 12 years has prepared me for what I'm experiencing right now. I'm glad I pushed myself because all the work that I've done in volunteering, clubs, and academics earned me nearly $20,000 in merit based and academic scholarships from multiple schools. Schools fought to have me join their ranks because they see my school and know what I am capable of the work I can do. Everyone has heard of AHS because of our strong academic and performing arts teams, and they know our dedication and our abilities to go above and beyond what we're expected to do. Talking to the Dean of Admissions at Harvey Mudd made that apparent when he told me that the AHS kids are some of the hardest working students he has at the school, and they never want to pass them up.