page_title: Northwestern High School (Hyattsville, Maryland)
section_title: Sub-schools and academy programs
hierarchical_section_title: Northwestern High School (Hyattsville, Maryland) / Academics / Sub-schools and academy programs
caption_attribution_description: The interior of the 1,100-seat auditorium at Northwestern High School in Hyattsville, Maryland. This photo was taken before the start of the annual Spring Concert.
context_page_description: Northwestern High School is a public comprehensive and magnet high school. It is located in Hyattsville, Maryland, United States in Prince George's County, less than a mile from the University of Maryland, College Park in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. It is part of the Prince George's County Public Schools system.
  Established in 1951 at its current location off Adelphi Road, the original building was demolished in the summer of 2000, and a modern facility now stands in its place. Opening in August 2000, at 386,000 sq ft and a capacity of 2,700 students, Northwestern is the second largest high school in the state of Maryland when measured by total square footage. It was the first of the county's current high schools to be replaced with a new facility.
  Northwestern became the school district's second Center for the Visual and Performing Arts magnet high school, with the program commencing for the 2013-14 school year. The CVPA program is a highly selective, rigorous four-year specialized program that offers college prep and professional career prep study in the visual arts and performing arts. Admission to the program is through a competitive, two-stage application process.
context_section_description: As part of adopting a "smaller learning communities" program of instruction, Northwestern High School offers several specialized programs in addition to the core curriculum mandated by the Prince George's County Public Schools system. A career academy operates as a "school-within-a-school" model, that provides a college preparatory curriculum with a career-related theme. The curriculum organizes instruction in academic subjects around an industry or career theme and enables students to fulfill requirements for college entrance in addition to acquiring work-related knowledge and skill.
  All students are provided a core set, or curricula, and experiences in the ninth and tenth grades. Ninth graders become a part of the Ninth Grade Academy to provide greater structure and focus with the goal of enhancing basic skills and preparing them for more intensive study after their selection of a career academy by the end of sophomore year. During eleventh and twelfth grades, students are exposed to more specific or specialized instruction and participate in various work-based learning experiences. Since all students take a core foundation of academic courses, career pathways overlap enough to allow the flexibility to change academies, if interests change or new knowledge and skills are acquired.
  Northwestern has identified nearly a dozen career clusters, organized around broad career fields. Of those career clusters, Northwestern has implemented four sub-schools. Each wing at Northwestern hosts at least one sub-school and one or more academy programs. The various programs are:
  The Jim Henson Center for the Visual and Performing Arts Academy
  Vocal Music major
  Instrumental Music major
  Interactive Media Production major
  Visual Arts major
  Dance major
  Drama major
  School of Business Management and Finance
  Academy of Business Management
  National Academy of Finance
  School of Human Resource Services
  International Studies Program (ISP)
  NJROTC Academy of Military Science
  School of Manufacturing, Engineering, and Technology
  Project Lead the Way Academy of Engineering
  Northwestern also features the America's Choice School Design Signature Program, a whole-school program which promotes reading and the language arts.
caption: The 1,100-seat renovated auditorium
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