Carlisle Area High School

CHS is confused The focus is misdirected to what kids wear instead of education. Give me a break!
--Submitted by a parent

Carlisle High School has some severe problems that involve incompetent teachers they cannot get rid of because they give them tenure after three years. About 25% of the teachers are excellent, another 50% are ok and about 25% have no business being in the classroom. The poor teachers refuse parent involvement to hide their incompetence, and the administration does not hold them accountable. It is a free for all because it appears no one is disciplining the poor teachers. In fact, they are enabled by the administration. It really does a disservice to the children. Their special education department is a failure, staffed by people who attempt to diagnose every kid they can with ADD - without meeting them in some cases. If you have a child who is different or has special needs, run far away from this school.
--Submitted by a parent

We are a military family. My son attended Carlisle his freshman and sophomore years. He loved the school and the teachers. I'm suprised that the reviews are so negative. We will be sad to leave.
--Submitted by a parent

I went here and it sucked. First of all there's the problem of having the regular and 'advanced' class choices. Any student can choose any version of a subject, which in the end can leave slackers and have slow kids bogging down the class with more enthusiastic students. This conflagration always leads to conduct and behavior issues. If they were on the same level then they could be more engaged. While the classrooms mostly weren't too huge, it seemed the teachers would typically ignore most of what went on with the students. Teacher quality varied wildly, so you could have an English teacher making you read interesting books while your history teacher is making you come up with a town motto and then grading you on it. Last thing, several administrative staff seemed to hold a grudge against some students. You'd be lucky if you ever got to speak your side.
--Submitted by a student

This school is horrible. horrible teachers. rules are too strict. i mean you get in trouble for wearing your hood. good class selections though. we have everything from culinary to cos and auto and woodshop. all right here in the school. other then this. this school is horrible.
--Submitted by a student

The most important fact is that my child loves the school. I have had some doubts because the district does not seem to emphasize college prep leaving this up to peers and parents. He was placed into a math class one year behind the necessary sequence for many colleges thanks to the referring middle school math teacher at Lamberton. So he is taking two math classes this year. However, great English programs, extracurricular activities. As military family, we now have to move & I am looking at other schools marked 8 or 9 which do not seem as good as this school.
--Submitted by a parent

they have so much to offer the students academicly.they work hard to help the students acheive their goals.
--Submitted by a parent

This is my child's first year in CHS. For the most part we have been pleased. and our child has maintained a 4.0 GPA so far and while challenged mostly because of rigorous extracurricular obligations, has done so. Teachers have been uniformly engaged and responsive, and the facilities seem very good. As parents we do have a major concern though. What is the horrible pass rate CHS has as far as state proficiency testing all about? For ANY school not to meet proficiency targets (especially when those targets are pretty low to begin with) is terrible. I mean, a 49 percent proficiency among juniors in math and a reading proficiency of 63 percent or so is really abysmal. Won't this erode the credibility of a good student's record in getting admitted to a first-tier college? Our child does not want to home school, but frankly I am concerned.
--Submitted by a parent

My son has the privilege of being in the same school district from kindergarten and eventually 12th grade. Although I struggled at first getting the teachers to understand the need to push my son, my persistence and involvement with his education helped them to understand. Programs are available through the school to help any child that needs it on both ends of the spectrum. My son, above average in intelligence, is challenged in his classes and his teachers also push him to achieve his best just as I do at home. Although I graduated from a rival school, I believe the Carlisle School District is far superior to the one I attended. I have gone to each back to school night for parents and have been pleased at the enthusiasm of the teachers. They care about what they're doing.
--Submitted by a parent

I graduated from this CHS last year and I was, in general, very pleased with the school. The teachers were usually both kind and challenging; the counselors were always very helpful (for example, when I was preparing to apply for college my counselor was always willing to pull out huge books filled the importance of each aspect of my application, financial aid programs, etc.), and the administrative officials were typically fair and willing to hear student opinions. The school has plenty of Honors and AP programs for students looking for more of a challenge (though the non-AP classes for college bound students are nothing to sneeze at), or, if a student wishes to go into a more specified field, there is an entire wing of the school dedicated to vocational fields. There are also plenty of sports programs and IM opportunities. A good choice for any kind of student.
--Submitted by a student