Great Valley High School is a comprehensive, college preparatory, public high school located in eastern

Chester County Chester County may refer to: * Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States * Chester County, South Carolina, United States * Chester County, Tennessee, United States * Cheshire or the County Palatine of Chester, a ceremonial county in the North Wes ...

. It is located in East Whiteland Township, near

Malvern Malvern or Malverne may refer to: Places Australia * Malvern, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide * Malvern, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne * City of Malvern, a former local government area near Melbourne * Electoral district of Malvern, an e ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. Located on the same campus as Great Valley Middle School, it is the only

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 ...

within the

Great Valley School District Great Valley School District is located in southeastern Pennsylvania, in the Philadelphia suburbs, specifically in the Delaware Valley region known as the Philadelphia Main Line, Main Line, in eastern Chester County, Pennsylvania, Chester Coun ...

. The school serves students residing in the Great Valley School District in Grades 9-12 and enrolls about 1,150-1,175 students per year. The student to teacher ratio is approximately 14:1. During the

2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries From January 3 to June 3, 2008, voters of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party chose their nominee for President of the United States, president in the 2008 United States presidential election. United States Senate, Senato ...

, then-Senator

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

gave a speech in Great Valley's gymnasium.

Academics

Great Valley is consistently ranked among the top public high schools in Pennsylvania. The

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

ranked Great Valley High School among "America's Most Challenging High Schools", ranking 9th in the State Of

. The '' U.S. News & World Report'' ranks the school 7th in the state and 613th nationally. Newsweek Magazine ranks the school at 169th in the country. The

College Board The College Board is an American nonprofit organization that was formed in December 1899 as the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB) to expand access to higher education. While the College Board is not an association of colleges, it runs a ...

listed the school on the AP® Honor Roll. Students at Great Valley High School score in the top 1% in the state in Math and Science. In 2012, Great Valley High School was ranked #1 in the state for student performance in Science.

Athletics Program

Great Valley High School is a member of the

Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, Inc., also known by its acronymn PIAA, is one of the governing bodies of high school and middle school athletics for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in the United States. The PIAA's main ...

. Students are subject to guidelines and principles determined by this organization. More locally, Great Valley is a member of the Ches-Mont League and PIAA's District One region. It used to belong to the now defunct Southern Chester County League. Great Valley's largest athletic rival is the Unionville High School Longhorns. The high school offers athletics in all high school grades. In addition, it has an intramural program. The school has been to and won various state championships. The most recent girls state championship win was by the lacrosse team in 2002, 2005, and 2015. The most recent appearance was in 2006 when the boys soccer team lost in the championship game, but they did win states in 1989, 1990, and 1993. The boys tennis team appeared in the team state championships in 2008 but lost in the semifinals. The tennis team however won states in 2018 after beating

Radnor High School Radnor High School is a public high school in Radnor, Pennsylvania. Of all high schools in Pennsylvania, Radnor is ranked 3rd by U.S. News & World Report, and 1st by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Overview Radnor High School is the on ...

. In 2010, the boys baseball team made their first trip to the state tournament, winning their first game before losing in the quarterfinals. The boys cross country team placed 11th (2010), 8th (2011), and 6th (2012) in the state championship meet. In 2011, the 4 × 400 m relay of Great Valley's storied track & field program came in first in the High School Boys Suburban ChesMont 4x400 event in the Penn Relays, with a time of 3:25.51

Notable events

In 1969, two students stole a corpse from the cemetery and hung it from the flag pole. Both were arrested. President

held a town hall meeting at Great Valley High School in the gymnasium during his 2008 election campaign. The meeting was open to the public and several students won the opportunity to sit in the meeting while the rest watched a live taping of it. Two Great Valley students were selected to sing

The Star-Spangled Banner "The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the b ...

before Obama and those who attended the meeting.

Notable alumni

* Cheryl Abplanalp,

Team USA The United States national team or Team USA may refer to any of a number of sports team representing the United States in international competitions. Olympic teams Additionally, these teams may compete in other international competitions such as ...

handball player in

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

, inductee into

Davis and Elkins College Davis & Elkins College (D&E) is a private college in Elkins, West Virginia. History The school was founded in 1904 and is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church. It was named for Henry G. Davis and his son-in-law Stephen B. Elkins, who were b ...

Hall of Fame *

Nasir Adderley Nasir Allan Adderley (born May 31, 1997) is an American football safety for the Los Angeles Chargers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Delaware. Early years Adderley attended Great Valley High School in Malve ...

, NFL Player (Los Angeles Chargers) *

Mikal Bridges Mikal Bridges (born August 30, 1996) is an American professional basketball player for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Villanova Wildcats, winning national championships in 2016 ...

, NBA Player (Phoenix Suns), Two time NCAA Basketball Champion (Villanova Wildcats) *

Fritz Coleman Fritz Coleman (born May 27, 1948 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is a retired weathercaster, who worked for NBC Channel 4 (KNBC) in Los Angeles, California from 1982 until 2020. He began hosting Media Path Podcast with Louise Palanker in 2020. ...

, Long-time prime-time weather anchor on KNBC-TV, Los Angeles, CA; noted stand-up comedian and charity benefactor *

Amanda Jane Cooper Amanda Jane Cooper is an American actress and singer best known for playing Glinda in ''Wicked'' and for her guest role as Susan Channing on '' Jessie''. Cooper grew up in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania The Village of Valley Forge is an unincorporat ...

, Broadway Actress: Glinda in ''

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'' * Joe Devlin, NFL

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player * Adam McKay, Academy Award Winning Actor, Writer, Director * Jimmy McLaughlin,

FC Cincinnati Football Club Cincinnati, commonly known as FC Cincinnati, is an American professional association football, soccer club based in Cincinnati. The club plays in the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). The ...

soccer player * Duane Milne, Former member of the

Pennsylvania House of Representatives The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two-year terms from single member districts. It ...

Thom Nickels Thom Nickels is a Philadelphia-based conservative commentator, author, and columnist. He has written fifteen literary works, is the previous recipient of the 2005 Philadelphia AIA Lewis Mumford Architecture Journalism Award, and was nominated for ...

, Author, Journalist * Bryan Russell, Record Producer *

Alice Sebold Alice Sebold (born September 6, 1963) is an American author. She is known for her novels ''The Lovely Bones'' and '' The Almost Moon'', and a memoir, '' Lucky''. ''The Lovely Bones'' was on ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list and was adapte ...

, Writer * Chris Young, Actor, Producer, Director

Renovation

A $36 million renovation was completed on the 1962 building in 2006. An addition was added to house the school's STEM classrooms as well as the construction of a new courtyard and lobby, with the expectation that the renovation will allow the school district to serve the Great Valley region for years to come.

References

External links

Great Valley High School Website

Great Valley Athletics Website
{{authority control Public high schools in Pennsylvania Educational institutions established in 1962 Schools in Chester County, Pennsylvania 1962 establishments in Pennsylvania