Thomas Alva Edison High School and John C. Fareira Skills Center is a high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 serving grades 9-12 in 151 West Luzerne Street, Philadelphia

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. (Location: 40.0122°N 75.1291°W)

The school serves several neighborhoods, including Fairhill

Fairhill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Fairhill is a neighborhood on the east side of the North Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Fairhill is located in an area between Kensington Avenue and 6th Street ranging from York Street to Gurney Street/Clearfield Street...

.

Original Edison High School building

The original Edison High School building was opened in 1903 as the all male Northeast Manual Training High School located at 8th Street and Lehigh Avenue. Eventually the school became Northeast High School

Northeast High School (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Northeast High School is a high school located at 1601 Cottman Avenue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States....

. The auditorium was added in 1916 and in 1936 vocational education shops and many regular classrooms were added to the original building. The building had been vacant since 2002 and was recently sold to developers. Sadly, the building was destroyed by fire on August 3, 2011. A Facebook page was organized for those wishing to leave memorials about their time at the original school.

New Edison High School building

In January 1957, a new Northeast High School was opened at Cottman and Algon Avenues. All of the trophies, most of the teaching staff and memorabilia were transferred to the new building. At the same time, a new school, Thomas Alva Edison High, was opened at the site. Because of our facilities, Edison remained all male until September 1979. Edison is now a fully co-educational high school.

Finally, in 1988, the original school was replaced by a new co-educational Edison/Fareira High School, named in part for its late principal, John C. Fareira. The new Edison/Fareira is a combined academic high school and vocational skills center. It is located at Front & Luzerne Streets with an outdoor athletic facility on the same site.

The school lost 54 former students during the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

, more than any other U.S. high school.

Feeder patterns

John B. Stetson Middle School feeds into Edison. Feeder K-8 schools include Julia deBurgos School, Fairhill School, Joseph C. Ferguson School, William H. Harrison School, John F. Hartranft School, Hon. Luis Muñoz Marín School, and Potter-Thomas School.

Thomas Edison High School Enrollment:
Total Enrollment - 2812
Rank Nationally - 415 out of 19379
Rank in Pennsylvania - 12 out of 689

Thomas Edison High School Students by Grade:
9th - 1040
10th - 688
11th - 553
12th - 531

Thomas Edison High School Students by Gender:
Male - 1410 (50%)
Female - 1402 (50%)

Thomas Edison High School Students by Ethnicity:
American Indian - 6 (0%)
Asian - 17 (1%)
Black - 546 (19%)
Hispanic - 2186 (78%)
White - 57 (2%)

Popular Culture

In Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg

Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...

's film, Saving Private Ryan

Saving Private Ryan

Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 American war film set during the invasion of Normandy in World War II. It was directed by Steven Spielberg, with a screenplay by Robert Rodat. The film is notable for the intensity of its opening 27 minutes, which depicts the Omaha Beach assault of June 6, 1944....

, United States Army Rangers Captain

Captain (OF-2)

The army rank of captain is a commissioned officer rank historically corresponding to command of a company of soldiers. The rank is also used by some air forces and marine forces. Today a captain is typically either the commander or second-in-command of a company or artillery battery...

 John Miller (played by Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks

Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks worked in television and family-friendly comedies, gaining wide notice in 1988's Big, before achieving success as a dramatic actor in several notable roles, including Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia, the title...

) states that he is an English Composition teacher at Thomas Alva Edison High School in Pennsylvania.

External links

• Edison's home page
• Demographic information and test scores from the Philadelphia School District
• https://webapps.philasd.org/school_profile/view/5020
• http://webgui.phila.k12.pa.us/schools/e/edison-fareira