Mars Area Senior High School

520 Route 228

School District

Mars Area
Grade

9-12
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:14
Type

public

School Map for Mars Area 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 parent on February 03, 2025

The teachers are not very good, and most do the bare minimum. They have little empathy for students or parents and many seem to think their class is the only thing going on in the student's life at times with the amount of work/busy work. They have taken both of my students who are very motivated and intelligent (98th percentile+ on SAT/ACT's), and made them hate school with the busy work and garbage assignments. Thank goodness they are smart, I do not know how other students would survive with the general lack of teaching here. They have study halls in a room without desks. Science classrooms that do one or two labs every nine weeks. The district relies on good clientele and does not really teach up students, but expects them to teach themselves and gets away with it because some students/families will pay private tutors to actually teach. We were fooled, thinking with the district size and test scores that it would be a good district. Pay the extra taxes and go to PR, Hampton, NA, etc. Education is not a priority here; they just want to do whatever they can in the cheapest way possible.After the train wreck that the Centennial school was, the middle school was slightly better, but the high school was pretty disappointing.
Submitted by other on February 17, 2021

The school gives no recognition to what should be recognized. They spend way to much money on things that they don't need at all, and they decide to take out funding for departments and divisions that really matter. They barely give any money to the sports teams and departments, just so that they can seem better compared to other districts. They care too much about their ego and not their students or staff. The teachers are about to go on strike, and the board isn't doing anything about them. They are trying to place the blame on them to make the board see better, because at the end of the day they just want more money. They give no care to the people who actually matter here, and they should not have the recognition that they get.
Submitted by parent on February 04, 2014

Small class sizes and amazing tech ed classes. My child had a web technology class where she worked on computer coding and processing...these are the future jobs for our kids!
Submitted by student on November 12, 2013

Good luck getting any recognition from the sports teams, or the other students if you do not have the name. I mean that there are several large families in the district, and those kids in the family are placed at an advantage. The teachers and very closed minded. Although I always felt safe there (with all the metal detectors), it was really all just a scam. We all knew who was sneaking things in, and how they were doing it. Really all that school showed us is how to get away with sneaking in cell phones and ipods in the most ways creative ways. The art, and music departments are losing all of their funding. 3 out of the 4 kids in my family went here, and we all agree it continues to get worse. The youngest of my siblings will not be in the Mars School District much longer. Many of my friends are switching schools, graduating early or are rapidly switching to cyber school.
Submitted by other on February 04, 2011

As a former student i thought the school was alright!. And i feel that the teaching skills were not that great... and everyone in the school think that they are better then everyone else. Oh and another problem with it is they have a libary, but in order to be able to go into it for the computers you have to sing up before your study hall, and they only let like 5 kids in at a time. If i had the choice to go here or somewhere i would choose somewhere else.
Submitted by parent on December 01, 2010

We specifically bought our house in Mars because we heard good things about the school and it appeared that Mars was going to be the right choice for us. I could not have been more wrong. Our son has Aspergers, and I soon began to hear from other area parents that Mars is notorious for their difficulty in working with special needs students. I hoped these stories weren't true, and thought the parents were just hard to please. That was not the case. Although we have a professional diagnosis and signed a consent for them to evaluate, although they knew about our special needs in August and I met with their "team" in September (as he was failing two classes), they have yet to evaluate him or communicate with me. I voiced concern about his adjustment since we just moved states and his Aspergers affects him socially and was assured they would help him by setting him up with mentor students or the guidance counselor. Absolutely NOTHING has taken place. This is exactly the same story I have heard from about 6 other special needs families who are homeschooling now. Even if you don't have a child with special needs, be prepared for a lack of communication from the district.
Submitted by parent on November 09, 2010

We moved to Mars School district from a larger district in the area and we could not be happier!! When your child comes home from school telling you that the students are all so nice and helpful, it is a direct reflection how well the parents are involved in their children's lives. The teachers make the classes interesting so that my high schooler wants to learn and willingly studies. The discipline, the atmosphere, the entire learning experience at Mars is exceptional!