User:Wei4Earth/Acton-Boxborough Regional High School

User:Wei4Green/sandbox Original article: Acton-Boxborough Regional High School

Acton-Boxborough Regional High School (ABRHS) is an open enrollment high school in Acton, Massachusetts, United States. A part of the Acton-Boxborough Regional School District, it serves the Massachusetts towns of Acton and Boxborough and has students in grades 9 through 12. It is situated downhill from the Raymond J. Grey Junior High School, at 36 Charter Road in Acton. Raymond J. Grey Junior High School occupies the facility that, until 1973, was the high school. ABRHS underwent an $80 million renovation and expansion in 2005.

ABRHS has consistently ranked among the top secondary schools in the country. It was one of 39 American high schools named a Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education in 2009. In 2012, U.S. News & World Report ranked Acton-Boxborough #3 among open enrollment high schools and #7 overall for STEM education. Nonprofit group GreatSchools ranked Acton #2 among small cities nationwide for its public education. ABRHS has achieved this success while serving many immigrant and limited-English-proficient students and maintaining per-pupil spending below the state average.

The National Wildlife Federation awarded ABRHS a Green Flag Award for its work to increase environmental awareness and promote environmental stewardship. It is only the fourth school to receive this award. ABRHS is also set to receive environmental awards from the Massachusetts state government and the National Energy Education Development Project.

Academics
ABRHS offers classes in a wide range of academic and artistic subjects, including Chinese, Latin, photography, graphic design, and anatomy & physiology. For most classes in academic subjects, students have the option of taking SP (standard prep), CP (college prep), AE (accelerated enriched), or Honors/Advanced Placement (AP) classes. The school regularly has graduation rates over 95% and college attendance rates over 90%.

In 2012, ABRHS produced 24 National Merit Semifinalists, 20 of whom became Finalists. The school has had several students become Semifinalists or Finalists in the Intel Science Talent Search, most recently in 2012 and 2013. Students have also participated in the Siemens Competition, and in 2008 an ABRHS team won a $30,000 scholarship.

Test scores
ABRHS consistently has strong showings on standardized tests including the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exams, the SAT and SAT Subject Tests, and AP exams. On the Spring 2012 10th grade MCAS, 96% were "proficient" or "advanced" in English/Language Arts, 94% in Mathematics, and 94% in Science.

The school had the highest average SAT Math scores in Massachusetts from 2010-2012. During the same period, average scores for all three sections were above 600. Average SAT Subject Test scores in 2012 ranged from 647 (Latin) to 750 (Mathematics Level II). 95% of the Class of 2012 took the SAT, as opposed to 89% statewide.

In 2012, 450 students took 948 AP exams and 97.4% of them received "proficient" scores (3-5).

Athletics
ABRHS has 21 different interscholastic sports, many of which are divided into Varsity, Junior Varsity and Freshman teams. All sports have boys' and girls' teams or are co-ed except for football, field hockey, cheerleading, wrestling, gymnastics, softball, and baseball. The school is a member of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association, within which it competes in the Dual County League (DCL).

The fall sports are football (boys), football cheerleading (girls), field hockey (girls), soccer, volleyball (girls), golf, swimming (girls; boys' is in the winter), and cross-country running. ABRHS's winter sports are basketball, ice hockey, indoor track, wrestling (boys), gymnastics (girls), alpine ski, basketball cheerleading, swimming (boys; girls' is in the fall), and cross-country skiing.

Spring sports include lacrosse, softball (girls), baseball (boys), tennis, volleyball (boys), and track and field.

ABRHS's sports rivals include Westford Academy for football and Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School for cross-country track and spring track.

Achievements
The school's sports teams have a long history of success. Among the fall sports, the football team set a state record with 52 consecutive wins and has won five Super Bowl titles. The girls' field hockey team won the state championship in 2007, 2009, 2012, 2014, and 2015 and girls' soccer won the state championship in 2007. The girls' swimming/diving team has won 13 state championships.

For winter sports, the boys' swimming/diving team has won nine state championships and boys' indoor track was the Class A state champion in 2012.

Among the spring sports, the girls' tennis team won the state championship in 2008 and 2012 while the boys' lacrosse team won the state championship in 2014 Also, the boys Varsity tennis team has lost 7 times in the past 7 years.

Environmentalism
Acton-Boxborough has worked to reduce its environmental impact and received several awards, including the prestigious Green Flag Award from the National Wildlife Federation, for its efforts. Involved student groups include the Recycling Club and the school's Green Council. In September 2010 students initiated the "Power Down" project to promote energy conservation, primarily by encouraging teachers to power down all electronics in their rooms at the end of the day. The project reduced energy consumption by 10%. After finding that most trash thrown out at lunchtime could be recycled or composted, students created a "recycling peers" program to make sure everyone put food waste in the appropriate containers. That program reduced the number of trash bags produced at lunch from 40 to four or less. In addition to these programs, students worked with teachers and the Acton Garden Club to divert water runoff from Charter Road into a new rain garden.

Notable alumni

 * Seth Abramson, poet
 * Tom Barrasso, Hockey Hall of Fame Goalie and member of the 2002 U.S. Silver Medal hockey team
 * Bob Brooke, NHL hockey player
 * Jamie Eldridge, MA Senator
 * Steve Hathaway, MLB pitcher
 * Drew Houston, founder of Dropbox
 * Skylar Kergil, LGBTQ activist, public speaker, YouTube vlogger, and musician
 * Maria Konnikova, writer and journalist
 * Jeff Norton, NHL hockey player
 * Caroll Spinney, Sesame Street puppeteer who performs Big Bird
 * Evelyn Stevens, cyclist
 * Bob Sweeney, NHL hockey player
 * Jessamyn West, librarian
 * Ilya Zhitomirskiy, co-founder of open source distributed social networking software company Diaspora; did not graduate from ABRHS