Taylor Allderdice High School

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Taylor Allderdice High School
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School type	Public
Established	1927
District	Pittsburgh Public Schools
Grades	9–12
Contact Number	412-422-4800
Principal	Bernard Komoroski^[1]
Students	1,638 as of 1-Apr-2007^[2]
Colors	Green and White
Mascot	Dragon
Representative	William Isler
Location	2409 Shady Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15217 Coordinates: 40.429514° N 79.919379° W United States
Website	Taylor Allderdice High School

Taylor Allderdice High School is a public school located in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

Its feeder district includes all or parts of East Hills, Homewood, Hazelwood, Greenfield, Hays, New Homestead, Lincoln Place, Point Breeze, Regent Square, Park Place, Squirrel Hill, and Swisshelm Park. Students from other neighborhoods within Pittsburgh and the borough of Mt. Oliver may also attend Allderdice through the pre-engineering magnet program or through the No Child Left Behind Act, because of the school has the district's highest State Standardized Test scores.^{[citation needed]}

Taylor Allderdice is one of ten high schools in the Pittsburgh Public Schools, and it has the largest student population of any school in the district. It is consistently recognized as one of the best urban public high schools in America, with a gifted and honors programs for those who qualify. It won a Blue Ribbon award from the U.S. Department of Education in 1996, in 2005 was ranked as tied for 1,062^nd place in Newsweek's top high schools^[3] and in 2006 it was ranked 1,036^th.^[4] In 2005 it was ranked as 148^th of 601 high schools in Pennsylvania.^[5]

1 Current student body
2 The Foreword
3 Notable alumni
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Current student body

As of 1 April 2007^[2]

Subset	Number of students	Percent
All	1,638	100%
White	915	55.86%
African American	641	39.13%
Asian	27	1.65%
Hispanic	13	0.79%
Mulitracial	40	2.44%
American Indian	2	0.12%
Male	865	52.81%
Female	773	47.19%

[edit] The Foreword

The school has published its newspaper, the Foreword, since Taylor Allderdice's founding in 1927.^[6] In the early 1990s, the entire run of the paper was archived in the University of Pittsburgh's Hillman Library.^[7] Faculty oversee students who produce the paper in an informal setting in conjunction with the English department's journalism courses, which teach "gathering accurate information and interviews from official sources in order to inform, educate, interest, or entertain student readers."^[8] During the 1970s, the paper carried the motto "Serving Allderdice High School and the community,"^[9] and claimed to reach more than 5,000 readers.^[10]^[11]^[12]

Along with its archiving at the University of Pittsburgh, the newspaper has spawned such career journalists as Gary Graff,^[13] who wrote for it in 1977-1978^[14] and professional writers such as Maxine Lapiduss^[15] whose bylines appear in 1977-1978.^[16] In 1979, the Foreword's news editor, Aaron Zitner, was a finalist in the American Newspaper Publishers Association's annual competition,^[17] and the paper received a first place rating in Columbia University's annual Scholastic Press contest.^[17] The Columbia Scholastic Press Association at Columbia University has recognized the paper and members of staff with its Crown Newspaper awards--the highest recognition it gives to a student print or online medium for overall excellence[1]--since the awards' inception in the early 1980s. Staff achieved Gold Circle awards in 1989,^[18] and 1990,^[19] and the paper itself a Silver Crown award in 1991.^[20] Today, the paper carries the motto "The student newspaper of Taylor Allderdice High School."^[21] The school displays a front page of the paper at its web site, which documents its coverage of such topics as the school's fund raising efforts, school board politics and the school's prosecution of "the war on drugs in school".^[21]

[edit] Notable alumni

Ivan Safyan Abrams, lawyer and international Rule of Law consultant^{[citation needed]}
Marty Allen, stand-up comedian and dramatic actor.^[22]^[23]
Howard Boksenbaum, Chief of Library and Information, State of Rhode Island^{[citation needed]}
Myron Cope, retired Pittsburgh Steelers radio announcer and sports commentator; worked on school newspaper.^[24]
Howard Fineman, political journalist, Newsweek editor and columnist^[25]
Gene Forrell, composer and conductor^[26]
Antoine Fuqua, movie director^[27]
Bernie Goldmann, director^[27]
Wiz Khalifa, hip hop artist.^[28]
Larry Lucchino, president and CEO of the Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles, and the San Diego Padres^[29]
Kathleen Marshall, choreographer, theater and film director^[30]
Rob Marshall, theater and film director^[27]^[30]
Curtis Martin, New York Jets running back^[31]
Bob O'Connor, Pittsburgh politician and former mayor^[32]
Evan Wolfson, civil rights attorney.^[33]