As the leader in co-educational, independent school education in the western Pennsylvania region, Shady Side Academy draws its roots from a one-room, one teacher school founded in 1883. Educating our region’s finest for the past three centuries Shady Side has seen many changes and firsts including expansion from a city locale to a more pastoral location with space for future expansion (1921-22), a merger with another prominent independent school to form the Junior School (1940) and the opening of the first separate Middle School in western Pennsylvania (1958).