Wilson Magnet High School

Infobox Secondary school
name = Joseph C. Wilson Magnet High School

city = Rochester
state = New York
country = USA
colors = Black and Red with White
district = Rochester City School District
mascot = Willie the Wildcat
grades = 7-12
established = 1905
type = Public middle school and high school
faculty =
enrollment = 1300
motto = Doing Things the Wilson Way
principal = Deasure Matthews and Pamela Rutland
yearbook =
newspaper =
website = http://www.rcsdk12.org/schools/secondary/wilson.htm
address = 501 Genesee Street, 200 Genesee Street
campus =

Joseph C. Wilson Magnet High School, sometimes referred to as Wilson Magnet or just Wilson, is a public high school in Rochester, New York. It is in the Rochester City School District.

History

Wilson began as West High School in 1905 on what was then the edge of Rochester. It was renamed the Joseph C. Wilson Junior High School in 1972, in honor of Joseph C. Wilson (Xerox), founder of Xerox Corporation, a longtime pillar of the Rochester economy.

During the 1970s, Wilson became plagued with a poor academic record, a high suspension rate, high teacher turnover, and the lowest attendance in the district. In an effort to turn the school around Wilson was converted into a "magnet school" in 1980 with a School of Performing Arts, an "Academy of Excellence" focusing on the Humanities, and the Academy of Science and Technology. School of Performing Arts was later moved to its own wing of Monroe High School, and the Academy of Excellence has also since been dropped, leaving the focus now solidly on the Academy of Science and Technology.

By 1985 the school was named one of the 10 best senior high schools in New York.Fact|date=September 2008 In 1998 it was in the top 1.5 percent of high schools in the nation based on percentage of enrollment taking AP exams.Fact|date=September 2008

In May 1989, four months after taking office, as part of his campaign to be known as "the education president", President George Bush visited Wilson for an hour, praising the school. "You are an example for the entire world," Bush told students.Fact|date=September 2008 Wilson was chosen because of its national reputation as an urban school, which had become academically excellent through the help of private industry. The Secret Service had arrived at Wilson two weeks ahead of Bush, and spent that time covering many of the windows with black tape, installing metal detectors, and making other security precautions. Ironically, Bush's visit to promote education overlapped with and disrupted the AP Physics exam.

Twenty Wilson 9th-10th. graders and 20 Xerox Corp. engineers met with President Bush at the White House in 1992 to celebrate their victory in the U.S. FIRST Design Engineering Competition and to receive the Chairman's Award for most outstanding partnership between a high school and its mentor company.Fact|date=September 2008 Another major Rochester-based corporation, XEROX, has also been actively involved with Wilson, organizing and funding a robotics club the X-Cats with senior engineers volunteering their time.

Performance

Wilson is consistently rated among the top high schools in the United States; it was ranked #24 on the 2006 version of "Newsweek's" Top 1200 U.S. high schools.Fact|date=September 2008 87% of its teachers have Master's degrees.Fact|date=September 2008 It has offered a large variety of AP courses for many years, and has recently also offered a number of IB courses. Among the AP courses it has offered are Latin BC (2nd year AP Latin), Calculus BC (2nd year AP Calculus), and Physics BC (2nd year AP Physics); it currently offers 15 AP courses. It also offers courses such as a post-AP computer science class and astrophysics. 83% of its alumni go on to college, including Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, MIT, Bard, and Stanford.

In 2000, Wilson became one of only 270 U.S. high schools approved to offer International Baccalaureate (IB) classes.Fact|date=September 2008 The IB program is offered as a completely separate course to take with an entirely different diploma available. Also IB graduates are granted an automatic free ride to the University of Rochester

Diversity

Wilson Magnet has a strong diversity of backgrounds among its students and faculty. The majority of the students are African American; there is also strong representation by Caucasians; Hispanics, many from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic; and Asians, including significant representation from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos; and a significant number with a mixed ancestry background.Fact|date=September 2008

Sports

Wilson has traditionally featured a very competitive varsity basketball team. Since its first varsity season in 1984, it has won 6 Section V championships('84, '85, '90, '91, '00, and '05) and has advanced to the NYSPHSAA championship tournament 3 times- winning the state championship in 1986.Fact|date=September 2008 It has solid teams in football, soccer, softball, golf and swimming.

Recent Changes

At the beginning of the 2005 - 2006 school year, the Rochester City School District converted James Madison High School into a second Wilson. The new Wilson is called Wilson Magnet Foundation Academy. It still focuses on Science and Technology, but now as of the 2007 - 2008 schoolyear, Wilson Foundation Academy is grades 7 - 9. The old Wilson is called Wilson Commencement Academy. It is grades 10 - 12. Grades 7-9 also have to wear uniform.

ee also

*Rochester City School District

External links

* [http://www.rcsdk12.org/schools/secondary/wilson.htm Wilson Magnet] page hosted by the Rochester City School District
* [http://www.wilsonalliance.org/ Wilson Alliance, Inc.] is a non-profit (501c3) organization whose purpose is to generate support and funding to enhance the students' experience by linking Joseph C. Wilson Magnet High School with businesses, organizations, alumni and the community
* [http://www.democratandchronicle.com/homes/community/wilson/101.html Wilson Magnet profile] by the "Democrat and Chronicle"
* [http://www.wilsonspirit.com/ Wilson Spirit private student and faculty website]