Paradigm High School

Paradigm High School
Location
11577 South 3600 West, South Jordan, Utah United States
Coordinates	40°32′28″N 111°58′33″W / 40.5410°N 111.9758°W / 40.5410; -111.9758Coordinates: 40°32′28″N 111°58′33″W / 40.5410°N 111.9758°W / 40.5410; -111.9758
Information
Type	Charter school
Motto	"A Different Kind Of Think"
Established	2006
School district	Utah Charter Schools District
Dean	Fernando Seminario
Principal	Scott Jones
Grades	7-12
Enrollment	574
Color(s)	Red, white, and blue
Athletics	Basketball, soccer, volleyball, flag football, softball, taekwondo
Mascot	Patriots
Affiliation	Utah State Office of Education
Website	http://www.paradigmschools.org

Paradigm High School is a high school in South Jordan, Utah, United States.^[1]^[2] Its main focus is leadership. Every year it is ranked as one of the worst schools in Utah for academic performance.^[3]

History

Paradigm was organized as a charter school under the Utah State Department of Education. It received its charter on July 13, 2005, and opened in September 2006.^[4]

The Utah State Board Of Education gave Paradigm High School a 38% F grade for its performance in the 2015-2016 school year. Paradigm High School is outranked by every public high school in the state of Utah. In fact, Paradigm High School is outranked by all schools of any kind in the entire state of Utah except for one other charter school.^[5]

Ethnic diversity

As of the 2015-2016 school year, Paradigm High is one of the least diverse schools in Utah. Only one high school out of all 20 public high schools in Salt Lake County (Riverton High) has less ethnic diversity. Paradigm High had 516 white students out of 587 total students enrolled.^[6]

Courses

Paradigm offers a variety of unusual courses in addition to standard courses, such as Novel Writing, AP Environmental Science, and taekwondo.^[7] Among its wide variety of English courses are one on the writings of C.S. Lewis, and classes about Western and Eastern World, French, Gothic, and British (including Shakespeare) literature. It also offers Latin, ASL, German, Spanish and French.

Leadership

Unique to Paradigm High School is a class called Leadership, which is offered in three levels:^[7] Foundations, Transitions, and Scholar. Its focus varies at each level:

Foundations is a course rooted in the fundamentals of a Paradigm education: study habits, goal-setting, personal accountability, self-reflection, and the basics of group discussion and shared inquiry, as well as an introduction to great books, people, and ideas. It is for students just starting on their path towards self-education.
Transitions is a course that is, indeed, a transition; geared toward students who have started along the scholar path, the goal of this course is to provide practical experience in the Paradigm model, while helping the students to develop a sense of their own individual mission.
Scholar is the most advanced Leadership course: a rigorous study of great literature and ideas, as well as their practical application. This is preparatory for the students' continuing education and experiences beyond Paradigm.^[8]

Extracurricular activities

Paradigm has many extracurricular activities and competitive teams. The Paradigm Chess Team (PCT) took third in the 1A-3A division in the Utah High School Chess Championships two years in a row,^[9] and the basketball teams received second place (girls') and first place (boys'). The girls' volleyball team won second place.

Paradigm also supports an excellent Academic Decathlon team. In March 2011, they beat reigning state champions Park City High in Super Quiz, one of 10 categories, and the most competitive, by 5 points out of a possible 6,000.

New in 2011-2012 was a mock trial team. Their first competition was February 24, 2012 against Mountain View High School.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/18/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.