Philadelphia Central High School
| Central High School of Philadelphia | |
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1700 West Olney Avenue Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19141 United States |
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| Type | Public high school |
| Established | 1836 |
| School district | The School District of Philadelphia |
| President | Timothy J. McKenna |
| Teaching staff | 93.54 (FTE) |
| Grades | 9–12 |
| Enrollment | 2,227 (2014-15) |
| Student to teacher ratio | 23.81 |
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| Athletics conference | Philadelphia Public League |
| Nickname | Lancers |
| Newspaper | The Centralizer |
| Television network | Central Broadcast News (CBN) |
| Website | centralhigh |
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Central High School
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| Location | 1700 West Olney Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Coordinates | 40°2′14″N 75°8′20″W / 40.03722°N 75.13889°WCoordinates: 40°2′14″N 75°8′20″W / 40.03722°N 75.13889°W |
| Area | 5 acres (2.0 ha) |
| Built | 1937 |
| Architectural style | Moderne |
| MPS | Philadelphia Public Schools TR |
| NRHP reference # | 86003267 |
| Added to NRHP | December 4, 1986 |
Central High School is a public high school in the Logan section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Central, the second-oldest continuously public high school in the United States (if one considers schools that were initially private, it is the twenty-seventh oldest public high school), was founded in 1836 and is a four-year university preparatory magnet school.
About 2,400 students attend grades 9 through 12. It consistently ranks among the top schools in the city and state. Central is regarded as one of the top public schools in the nation due to its high academic standards.This school requires exceptional grades for enrollment.
Central High School holds the distinction of being the only high school in the United States that has the authority, granted by an Act of Assembly in 1849, to confer academic degrees upon its graduates. This practice is still in effect, and graduates who meet the requirements are granted the Bachelor of Arts degree. Central also confers high school diplomas upon graduates who do not meet the requirement for a bachelor's degree.
Due to its authority to grant academic degrees, Central traditionally refers to the principal of the school as the "President" of Central High School. The current president is Timothy J. McKenna.
Central, rather than using a general class year to identify its classes (as in "class of 2019"), uses the class graduating number system (as in "276th graduating class" or "276"). This tradition started shortly after the school's founding, when it was common to have two graduating classes per year – one in January and one in June. In June 1965, semiannual graduations were replaced by annual graduations. As of the 2017–2018 school year, the current senior class is the 277th graduating class of Central High School.
Central High School of Philadelphia was founded in 1836 as "the crowning glory" of Philadelphia Pennsylvania's public school system, "the worthy apex to a noble pyramid", and the first "high" school in the state. Because city voters only reluctantly had been convinced of the need for a high school, the curriculum was carefully and publicly geared to the needs of taxpayers. Central's founders made an especially concerted effort to avoid educating students in the manner of private academies of the day, where classical languages and literature were of paramount importance.
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