Dobbs Ferry High School, Dobbs Ferry NY

Original Research by School Decision on Dobbs Ferry High School

Dobbs Ferry High School is a small public school serving grades nine through twelve in a mixed-use Hudson River village that has undergone substantial recent development. The enrollment sits in the low hundreds, with a student body that is predominantly white, though with a meaningful Hispanic presence and smaller populations of Asian and multiracial students. About one-fifth of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a lower rate than many suburban schools but a baseline worth knowing if you are evaluating socioeconomic diversity.

The school sits on Broadway in a village of roughly twenty miles north of Manhattan, where Metro-North service and walkable downtown streets shape daily life more than they do in typical Westchester suburbs. Dobbs Ferry itself has shifted markedly in recent years from a quiet rivertown to a place with active new construction and residential investment, centered on the Rivertowns Square mixed-use project and related downtown improvements. This growth context means the school community is likely to include both long-settled families and newer arrivals, and enrollment and housing patterns may continue to shift.

The district has pursued meaningful capital improvements and has raised its operating budget and property-tax levy consistently over the past several years, a pattern parents moving into the area should account for in any assessment of long-term housing and tax burden.

Academic performance data for the school was not available, and comparison metrics such as state testing results, graduation rates, or chronic absenteeism figures were not reported. This gap may reflect the school's role as a regular secondary school serving a small district, though a parent may want to look into this further with the school or the district directly to understand how students are performing and what college readiness supports are in place. The district's website and the school itself would be the best source for detail on curriculum breadth, AP and honors course availability, dual-enrollment or career pathway options, and how the school structures academic guidance for students with different destination expectations.

The peer environment is shaped by a small enrollment and a village setting with relatively high property values and a mix of long-time residents and newer residents drawn by downtown revitalization. Housing costs in the zip code are substantial, placing the area well above the state average; rental costs are also high and have risen notably. This means the student body likely skews toward households with above-median income, though the presence of free-and-reduced-lunch qualification and student diversity suggests some economic range exists within the school.

A parent considering this school should plan to gather specific information on program offerings, teaching style, college placement outcomes, and how the school engages students who do not follow a traditional four-year-college pathway, alongside any available performance or engagement data the school or district can provide. The walkable village and small-school setting are concrete facts about the day-to-day experience; the academic picture requires direct inquiry.

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Academic performance

How students graduate and prepare for what comes next.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

>=95%Cohort of 118 students · Class of 2021

The federal source publishes a banded range instead of an exact rate when the graduating cohort is small enough that an exact number could risk identifying individual students.

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

1,253 schools plotted. 14 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

Advanced Placement & IB

18 subjects offered · 2023-24

Each card is one AP or IB subject. The headline number is the share of students scoring 3 or higher on the exam — the threshold for college credit at most universities. The bar below each rate shows the underlying distribution across performance levels.

Score:12· no credit345· extremely well qualified

Math and Computer Science

Calculus BC

1 tested

0.0%

scored 3 or higher

Computer Science Principles

22 tested · Grade 9, Grade 10

40.9%

scored 3 or higher

International Baccalaureate

Ib Biology SL

8 tested · Grade 10, HS

62.5%

scored 3 or higher

Ib Chemistry SL

51 tested · Grade 10, HS

68.6%

scored 3 or higher

Ib Film HL

20 tested · HS

95.0%

scored 3 or higher

Ib History Hl History of the Americas

41 tested · Grade 10, HS

92.7%

scored 3 or higher

Ib Language a Literature English HL

43 tested · Grade 10

97.7%

scored 3 or higher

Ib Language a Literature English SL

30 tested · Grade 10, HS

76.7%

scored 3 or higher

Ib Language Ab Initio Spanish SL

6 tested · Grade 10

33.3%

scored 3 or higher

Ib Language B French SL

8 tested · Grade 10

62.5%

scored 3 or higher

Ib Language B Italian SL

9 tested · Grade 10

66.7%

scored 3 or higher

Ib Language B Spanish SL

29 tested · Grade 10, HS

65.5%

scored 3 or higher

Ib Mathematics Analysis and Approaches HL

18 tested · HS

50.0%

scored 3 or higher

Ib Mathematics Analysis and Approaches SL

48 tested

37.5%

scored 3 or higher

Ib Music SL

2 tested

0.0%

scored 3 or higher

Ib Physics SL

14 tested

71.4%

scored 3 or higher

Ib Visual Arts HL

12 tested

100.0%

scored 3 or higher

Other

World History

71 tested · Grade 10

85.9%

scored 3 or higher

New York Regents Exams

4 courses reported · 2024-25

End-of-course exams required for a New York Regents diploma. Each row shows the cohort size and the share of students scoring at the proficient level or higher.

Course	Students tested	% proficient
Social Studies	120	94.0%
Ela	113	94.0%
Science	84	87.0%
Math	78	100.0%

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.