Northwestern High School is a public comprehensive and magnet high school located in Hyattsville, Maryland, United States—less than a mile away 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 of Adelphi Road, the original building was demolished in the summer of 2000, and a modern facility now stands in its place. Opened in August 2000 with 386,000 sq ft (35,900 m2) of land 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.
Northwestern became the school district's second Center for the Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) 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. Northwestern's CVPA program operates as a "school-within-a-school" model, and is a replication of the program that has been in existence at Suitland High School since 1986. However, currently Northwestern's program only draws students from a limited attendance area.In December 2009, Northwestern was recognized as a Silver Medal School among "America's Best High Schools" by U.S. News & World Report. In 2005, The Washington Post cited Northwestern as being the second highest ranking high school, among all district high schools, for students' scores on the nationally administered AP tests.Northwestern is accredited by the Commission on Secondary Schools, a division of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.
The late Jim Henson, the creator of The Muppets, graduated from Northwestern in 1954. On October 5, 2002, during an official building dedication ceremony attended by Jane and Heather Henson (Jim's widow and daughter, respectively), as well as representatives from the Jim Henson Legacy, Northwestern was given permission to rename the arts building at Northwestern, to the Jim Henson School of Arts, Media and Communications.