Scarsdale High School (SHS) is a public high school in Scarsdale, New York, 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 2009, 98% continued their education with college programs, and 96% entered 130 different four-year national and international colleges and universities. 15 students in the class of 2010 (4%) were named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists, and 66 (18%) students received National Merit Letters of commendation. Between 2007 and 2009, Scarsdale High School made a transition from Advanced Placement (AP) to Advanced Topics (AT) courses.
In the 2009–10 school year, SHS had a professional staff of 164 with a median teaching experience of 14 years. 98% of the faculty held a master's degree, 76% had 30 credits or more beyond a master's, and 12% had doctorate degrees. The student faculty ratio is 9 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.
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 (ESL) 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.
What The New York Times termed a "homecoming bacchanal" made regional news in 2002 and sent five students to the hospital with acute alcohol poisoning. Reportedly scores of students arrived drunk at the dance. 28 of them received suspensions. The Times said the incident evoked "soul-searching" in "this iconic suburb, which prides itself on giving children every advantage." A student was quoted as saying "We are supposed to be Scarsdale, the rich people, the good people, the studious." Principal John Klemme told student government leaders that "the world is taking a perverse pleasure in Scarsdale's humiliation" and challenged them to "reclaim your school."
Eric Alterman (1978), Nation columnist
Jacob M. Appel (1992), bioethics scholar
Nan Aron (1966), civil rights advocate, public interest lawyer
Nancy Friedman Atlas (1967), United States federal judge
Greg M. Behrman (1994), author, Henry Kissinger Fellow for Foreign Policy at The Aspen Institute, founder, editor and CEO of NationSwell
Dan Biederman (1971), urban management pioneer
Leslie Cannold (1983), author, commentator, ethicist, activist
Judy Cheng-Hopkins (1970), United Nations Commissioner
Lizabeth Cohen (1969), historian, scholar
Lydia Cornell (as Lydia Korniloff) (1971), actress
Laura Dave (1995), novelist
Lisa Donovan (1998), actress
Robert Durst (1961), son of Seymour Durst, murderer
John S. Dyson (1961), businessman
Nicole Eisenman (1983), visual artist
Eve Ensler (1971), playwright, performer, activist
Paul J. Feiner (1974), mayor of Greenburg, New York
David Feldshuh (1961), physician, dramatist, artistic director at Cornell University
Tovah Feldshuh (1966), actress
Rob Fishman (2004), entrepreneur and writer
Richard Foreman (1955), playwright, avant-garde theater pioneer
David Galef, novelist, short story writer
Lindsay Gottlieb (1995), women's college basketball coach
Gordon Gould (1938), physicist credited with inventing laser
Earl G. Graves, Jr. (1980), basketball player
Ross Greenburg (1973), executive for HBO Sports
Peter Grosz (1992), actor
Jonathan Haidt (1981), social psychologist
Jeffrey Hoffman (1962), astronaut
Richard Holbrooke (1958), American diplomat
Heather H. Howard (1986), health policy expert and political advisor
Gish Jen (1974), novelist
Kenneth I. Juster (1972), government official, lawyer
Brewster Kahle (1978), artificial intelligence expert
Matthew Kahn (1984), environmental economics scholar
Bob Kauffman (1964), professional basketball player
Alison Knowles (1951), artist
Barbara Kopple (1964), documentary film director
Richard Kostelanetz (1958), writer and visual artist
Glenn Kramon (1971), journalist, assistant managing editor of The New York Times
Robert Kuttner (1961), journalist, editor
David Lascher (1990), actor
John Leventhal (1970), musician, producer, songwriter, recording engineer
Mara Liasson (1973), National Public Radio correspondent
Cabot Lyford (1942), sculptor
Charles S. Maier (1956), professor of history at Harvard University
Michael Mark (1968), musician/composer
Linda McCartney (1959), photographer, wife of Paul McCartney
Liza Minnelli (attended 1961–62, did not graduate) singer, actor
Rick Moser (1974), National League Football player, actor
Ethan Nadelmann (1975), writer and advocate on drug policy reform
Charles Newirth (1973), film producer
Jack Newkirk (1932), United States naval aviator
Judith Newman (1977), journalist and author
Suzanne Nossel (1987), non-profit executive and human rights activist
Dan O'Brien (1992), playwright
Jon Oringer (1992), entrepreneur and the founder of the popular microstock photography site Shutterstock
Cathryn Jakobson Ramin (1975), journalist and writer
Victoria Redel (1976), poet, fiction writer, professor at Sarah Lawrence College
Bryan Reynolds (1983), playwright, Shakespeare scholar
Thomas E. Ricks, '73, journalist
Tom Rogers (1972), media executive
Dan Rosensweig (1979), business executive, CEO of Chegg
Elisabeth Rosenthal (1974), physician, journalist for The New York Times
Cynthia E. Rosenzweig (1966), climatologist
Douglas Rushkoff (1979), media theorist, writer, columnist, lecturer, graphic novelist and documentarian
Daniel Schacter (1970), psychologist
Carl Emil Schorske (1932), cultural historian
Christopher M. Schroeder (1982), entrepreneur
Alan Schwarz (1986), sportswriter
John E. Schwarz (1957), political scientist, distinguished senior fellow at Demos
DJ Shiftee (2004), DJ, turntablist, born Samuel Morris Zornow
Aaron Sorkin (1979), screenwriter
Andrew Ross Sorkin (1995), journalist
Richard Stengel (1973), editor of Time magazine
Roderick Stephens (1927), American sailor
Carolyn Strauss (1981), television executive and producer
George Sugihara (1968), theoretical biologist
Ivan Sutherland (1955), Internet pioneer
Ojetta Rogeriee Thompson (1969), judge
James Traub (1972), journalist
Gary Trauner (1979), Wyoming politician
Nina Totenberg (1962), journalist
Florence Wald (1934), nurse, professor, administrator
John Wallach, (1960), journalist, author, editor, founder of Seeds of Peace
Ellen Weiss (1977), radio executive
Bob Wilber (1945), jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, band leader
Harris Wofford (1944), United States Senator from Pennsylvania
George Zimmer (1966), entrepreneur
