Academy for Performing Arts


The Union County Academy for Performing Arts is a full-time four-year public magnet high school located in Scotch Plains, in Union County, New Jersey, 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 and dance; a program in technical theatre was added in the 2015–2016 school year. The school is part of the Union County Vocational Technical Schools, which serves students in all of Union County. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Secondary Schools since 2017.
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. While attending Kean, their courses follow the program for the first year in the performing arts concentration.
As of the 2018–19 school year, the school had an enrollment of 236 students and 13.9 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 17.0:1. There were 20 students eligible for free lunch and 7 eligible for reduced-cost lunch.

Awards, recognition and honors

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 by the United States Department of Education.
In its 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.
In its 2013 report on "America's Best High Schools", The Daily Beast ranked the school 962nd in the nation among participating public high schools and 71st among schools in New Jersey.
Schooldigger.com ranked the school 20th out of 381 public high schools statewide in its 2011 rankings which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the mathematics and language arts literacy components of the High School Proficiency Assessment.

Admissions

Applicants to the high school proceed through the admission process as follows:
The following criteria are considered for admission:
Academically qualified candidates will then come back to audition for their career path which can be either Dance or Theatre Arts. They will be judged by a panel with a background in that career.

Graduation requirements

In order to graduate from the Academy for Performing Arts, a student is required to have taken:
The building first opened in September 2010. The school features two dance studios, two theatre studios, a recording studio, a black box theatre, a technical theatre room, a make-up room, dressing rooms and a lighting booth.

Partnership with Kean University

In addition to attending APA the first three years of high school, students are sent to Kean University during their senior year and are eligible to receive one full year of college credits on a Kean University transcript.
Due to the discrepancy between the required number of days of attendance for a high school senior versus the schedule of classes at Kean, students are expected to complete a senior project to make up the difference.