The Union County Academy for Performing Arts is a full-time four-year

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

magnet A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, steel, nickel, ...

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

located in Scotch Plains, in Union County,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, United States, on the Union County Vocational Technical Schools Campus. Its first year was the 2008–2009 school year. While the school originally offered two majors;

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

and

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

; a program in

technical theatre Stagecraft is a technical aspect of theatrical, film, and video production. It includes constructing and rigging scenery; hanging and focusing of lighting; design and procurement of costumes; make-up; stage management; audio engineering; an ...

was added in the 2015–2016 school year. The school is part of the

Union County Vocational Technical Schools The Union County Vocational-Technical Schools (UCVTS) are a grouping of schools on the Union County Vocational Technical Schools Campus in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, United States, which offers educational programs for students across Union C ...

(UCVTS), which serves students in all of Union County. The school has been accredited by the

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools The Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools (Middle States Association or MSA) was a voluntary, peer-based, non-profit association that performed peer evaluation and regional educational accreditation, accreditation of public and priva ...

Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools since 2017.Union County Academy for Performing Arts

Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Schools. Accessed February 12, 2022. The students are on the Union County Vocational Technical Schools Campus for the first three years of high school, while their senior year is spent at

Kean University Kean University () is a public university in Union Township, Union County, New Jersey, Union and Hillside, New Jersey. It is part of New Jersey's public system of higher education. Kean University was founded in 1855 in Newark, New Jersey, as th ...

. While attending Kean, their courses follow the program for the first year in the

performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perform ...

concentration. As of the 2021–22 school year, the school had an enrollment of 234 students and 13.6 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a

student–teacher ratio Student–teacher ratio or student–faculty ratio is the number of students who attend a school or university divided by the number of teachers in the institution. For example, a student–teacher ratio of 10:1 indicates that there are 10 students ...

of 17.2:1. There were 8 students (3.4% of enrollment) eligible for

free lunch A free lunch is the providing of a meal at no cost, usually as a sales enticement to attract customers and increase revenues from other business. It was once a common tradition in saloons and taverns in many places in the United States, with th ...

and 1 (0.4% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.School data for Academy For Performing Arts

National Center for Education Statistics The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the part of the United States Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) that collects, analyzes, and publishes statistics on education and public school district finance ...

. Accessed December 1, 2022.

Recognition and rankings

In 2016, the Academy for Performing Arts was one of ten schools in New Jersey, and one of two high school programs in the state, recognized as a

National Blue Ribbon School The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program is a United States Department of Education award program that recognizes exemplary public and non-public schools on a yearly basis. Using standards of excellence evidenced by student achievement measures, ...

by the

United States Department of Education The United States Department of Education is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. It began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Department ...

. In its 2013 report on "America's Best High Schools", ''

The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...

'' ranked the school 962nd in the nation among participating public high schools and 71st among schools in New Jersey. In ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

''s listing of "America's Best High Schools 2016", the school was ranked 203rd out of 500 best high schools in the country; it was ranked 32nd among all high schools in New Jersey.

Partnership with Kean University

In addition to attending APA the first three years of high school, students are sent to

during their senior year and are eligible to receive one full year of college credits on a Kean University transcript.Academy For Performing Arts

New Jersey Department of Education The New Jersey Department of Education (NJ DOE) administers state and federal aid programs affecting more than 1.4 million public and non-public elementary and secondary school children in the state of New Jersey. The department is headquartered ...

. Accessed November 13, 2016. "An articulation agreement is in place with Kean University whereby students will spend their high school senior year at Kean University taking a full freshman college course load which includes a concentration in their Performing Arts major."

References

External links

Union County Academy for Performing Arts website
*
Academy for Performing Arts

{{DEFAULTSORT:Academy For Performing Arts 2008 establishments in New Jersey Educational institutions established in 2008 Magnet schools in New Jersey Public high schools in Union County, New Jersey Scotch Plains, New Jersey