Garfield High School (Los Angeles County, California)

Infobox_School
name =James A. Garfield High School
imagesize =161px
motto ="A clear head, a true heart, a strong arm"
established =1925
type =Public
affiliation =
district =Los Angeles Unified School District
grades =9 - 12
president =
principal =Michael Summe
head of school =
dean =
faculty =
staff =
students =
enrollment =4620 (2005–2006)
|colors =White, Blue, & Crimson color box|whitecolor box|bluecolor box|crimson
mascot =Bulldog
free_label =
free_text =
free_label2 =
free_text2 =
location =East Los Angeles, California flagicon|California
country =USA
information =
website = [http://www.garfieldhs.org Official website]
[http://notebook.lausd.net/portal/page?_pageid=33,54194&_dad=ptl&_schema=PTL_EP&school_code=8680 LAUSD website]

seealso|Garfield High School "for schools of the same name"

James A. Garfield High School is a public, year-round high school founded in 1925 in East Los Angeles, an unincorporated section of Los Angeles County, California. The school suffers from many of the problems common to inner-city schools. Its strong computer science magnet, Academic Decathlon, and Advanced Placement programs have led to unexpected academic success stories. The school was made famous by the film "Stand and Deliver" about teacher Jaime Escalante. The auditorium, constructed in 1924, was burned badly by an arsonist on May 20 2007. The arsonist proved to be a freshman student at the school. The Administration building suffered some smoke and water damage.

Administration

Garfield is administered by the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Demographics History

From the 1930s through the 1950s, Garfield High was predominantly non-Hispanic white. However, since the 1960s, the majority of student body has been Hispanic. [ [http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/05/17/in_school_latinos_find_fewer_resources_ethnic_isolation?mode=PF In school, Latinos find fewer resources, ethnic isolation - The Boston Globe ] ]

The school had a total of 4620 students in the 2005–2006 school year; 99.26% of the students were identified as Hispanic [ [http://search.lausd.k12.ca.us/cgi-bin/fccgi.exe?w3exec=enroll3&which=8679 LAUSD Enrollment Summary ] ] .

Academics

Overall, Garfield has a student population that places significantly below average in the California Standards Test. [http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/lausd/offices/bulletins/8679_cst.pdf]

The vast majority of the parents of students at Garfield High School were born in another country; 67% never finished high school.Fact|date=February 2007

Year-Round Calendar

Garfield has been on a year-round, multi-track schedule to relieve overcrowding since July 1991. Initially, there were four tracks. The students are, for the most part, randomly assigned to one of three tracks, and alternate two-month vacations. Only two-thirds of the student body is on campus at any given time.

Classes are approximately 63 minutes in length and meet five times per week. Sixteen weeks constitute a semester. The highest mark possible is an "A" ; the lowest passing mark is a "D".

Academic Decathlon

Garfield has the following record in the California Academic Decathlon from 1998 to 2006 [ [http://www.academicdecathlon.org/scores.htm California Academic Decathlon Website ] ] :

Advanced Placement

Garfield achieved fame because of Jaime Escalante who, in the 1980s, along with the administration of Henry Gradillas built an exceptional advanced placement program. In 1982, 18 of his students passed the advanced placement calculus test. The College Board suspected cheating and required the students to re-take the examination. Further testing showed that the students had actually learned the material. cite paper | author=Jerry Jesness| title="Stand and Deliver" Revisited| date=2002| url=http://www.reason.com/0207/fe.jj.stand.shtml| language=English] .

In 1987, 73 students passed, while another 12 passed the second year calculus test. In 1988, a popular film titled "Stand and Deliver" starring Academy Award-nominee Edward James Olmos was made about the events of 1982. In 1990, there were over 400 students in Escalante's math program from algebra to calculus. In 1991, he had a falling out with the school administrationand as a result left the Garfield school system. By 1996, only seven passed the basic calculus exam, with four passing the advanced exam. That was a total of eleven passing students, down from a high of 85 nine years earlier. In 2001, the school made a slight recovery in its calculus scores, with 17 passing the basic test and seven passing the second year test.

The legacy of Jaime Escalante can be seen in the 722 students who took AP tests of some sort in 2000. They had a 44% overall pass rate, which is comparable to the national average.

In 2004, Newsweek ranked Garfield 581^st top high school in the nation. The rank was based on the number of Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate tests taken by all students at a school in 2004 divided by the number of graduating seniors. [cite news
author = Mathews, Jay
title = The Complete List of the 1,000 Top U.S. Schools
url = http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8759025/site/newsweek/
work = 16 May 2004 issue
format = html
date = 2004
accessdate = 2006-12-02
publisher = Newsweek]

Activities

Marching Band and Colorguard

The Garfield High School Marching Band and Colorguard (formerly Marching Band and Drill Team) is one of the most successful groups in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Since the late 1980s, Garfield has won 14 City Championships, and has won 5 in the last 7 years. In 2007, the Band and Colorguard became the 4th LAUSD school to make the Southern California Schools Band and Orchestra Association's Field Championships, tying for 6th place. As a side legal note, the school was postumously deafeated in 1991 by West Central's Belmont High School. In response for their undeniable defeat the school filed a lawsuit against the students of Belmont after the public championship in the Los Angeles Sports Arena. Their case was lost and an appeal was filed. Nevertheless, the Belmont Sentintels remain champions. To date, the Sentinels, will not be denied and the case remains a thorn in the Los Angeles Unified School District as a case of poor sportsmanship. [ [http://worldofpageantry.com/scores/index.php World of Pageantry - Scores Links ] ]

ports

The school colors are crimson, white, and blue, and the mascot is the bulldog.

Football

Garfield High School participates in the "East L.A. Classic" against Theodore Roosevelt High School, in football, a game that traditionally draws over 20,000 fans [http://www.nflhs.com/StateStories.aspx?id=8715&state=GJ NFLHS.COM - State Stories ] ] . Garfield has the following record in the Classic:

*Garfield beat University to become 2007 (CIF) City Invitational Champions. **note** "City Invitational", during the (2007) season, Garfield was not part of the City Division.
* As of June 5, 2008 Garfield would longer participate in the Invitational Division, instead would participate in the City Division. [http://www.cif-la.org/documents/2008_division_assignment.pdf] However the League Alignment remains the same, and should not be confused with Division Alignment. [http://www.cif-la.org/documents/2008_league_alignment.pdf]

May 2007 Auditorium fire

* On 20 May 2007, an arsonist set fire to the school's 82 year-old auditorium. It is estimated over $30 million dollars in damages in the fire, the auditorium is now completely destroyed. [cite web
url = http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-garfield21may21,0,3323961.story?coll=la-home-center
title = Fire destroys auditorium at Garfield High]
*A benefit concert was held in collaboration to the fire by Los Lobos. No further progress has been shown.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.garfieldhs.org/ New Garfield High School homepage]
* [http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/Garfield_HS/ Garfield High School homepage]
* [http://www.ghsleadership.com Garfield High School Leadership website]
* [http://www.garfieldalumnifoundation.org Garfield High School Alumni Foundation website]