10. Staten Island Technical High School
Staten Island Technical High School in New Dorp, Staten Island is listed 2nd in Business Insider’s list of top 10 high schools in New York City. The New York Post ranks Staten Island Tech 3rd among the top 50 High Schools of New York, calling it New York’s “best-kept secret”. U.S. News & World Report ranks Staten Island Technical High School 43rd nationally and sixth in the State.
The High School college readiness index rating is at approximately 90%.
Opening as a New York City public school in 1988, this engineering and college preparatory school celebrated its 25th anniversary in the 2013-2014 school year and describes itself as “highly competitive”. As part of New York’s specialized schools network, Staten Island Tech serves as one of the city’s hubs for “gifted” students.
The curriculum focus at Staten Island Technical High emphasizes math, science, computers, engineering, as well as giving attention to humanities and participation sports. The school’s website states that its facilities include “state-of-the-art science, engineering and computer laboratories.”
Russian is the foreign language of choice in Staten Island Technical High School, and an introduction to the language is offered as a foreign language, as well as coursework in Russian culture, a reflection of the borough’s burgeoning Russian population.
The college prep course is described as “rigorous” and “competitive” by InsideSchools though not at the same competitive level that Stuyvesant and Bronx Science are reputed to be. The school has a 100% graduation rate, the highest in the five boroughs, with 75% of students taking AP courses in subjects such as calculus, macro-economics, and physics.
Students can expect two to three hours of homework per night; student to teacher ratio is reported at 21 to 1. The High School features no less than 81 clubs, ranging from ethnic clubs such as Russian, Ukrainian, Korean, Filipino, Hispanic, Jewish, and Greek clubs, to sports clubs such as volleyball, table tennis, gymnastics, and badminton, to clubs such as drama, business, and tech, a wide diversity of interests of students contribute to a well-supported culturally diverse and tolerant school atmosphere, where no one culture dominates.
