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'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 which was a viewed by many as a historic landmark, constructed in 1924, was burned badly by unknown arsonist May 20,2007. The Administration building suffered some smoke and water damage.

Contents

Administration

Service Area

Demographics History

Academics

Year-Round Calendar

Academic Decathlon

Advanced Placement

Sports

Football

May 2007 Auditorium fire

Notable Alumni

Academia

Arts & Literature

Entertainment

Sports

Notes

External links

Administration

Garfield is administered by the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Service Area

Garfield High School, is located in a community of about 100,000 residents approximately 5 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. The majority of the students live in the area, however approximately 40% of the Computer Magnet Students are bused to school.
The school serves the East Los Angeles area and the LAUSD portion of Monterey Park.

Demographics History

From the 1930s thru the 1950s, Garfield High was predominantly non-Hispanic white. However, since the 1960s, the majority of student body has been Hispanic. ^[1]
The school had a total of 4620 students in the 2005-2006 school year; 99.26% of the students were identified as Hispanic^[2].

Academics

Overall, Garfield has a student population that places significantly below average in the California Standards Test.^[3]
The vast majority of the parents of students at Garfield High School were born in another country; 67% never finished high school.

Year-Round Calendar

Garfield has been on a year-round, multi-track schedule to relieve overcrowding since July 1991. The student 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^[4]:

'Year'	'State standing'	'State points'	'LAUSD standing'	'LAUSD points'
2007	9th	44,509.7	5th	43,992.4
2006	10th	42,707.9	6th	44,310.4
2002	13th	42,645.0	7th	41,677
2001	12th	39,398	3rd	41,702
1999	8th	44,557	2nd	45,780
1998	6th	45,912	2nd	''Unknown''

Advanced Placement

Garfield achieved fame because of Jaime Escalante; during the 1980s he built an exceptional advanced placement calculus 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.^[5]
In 1987, 73 students passed, while another 12 passed the second year calculus test. In 1988, a popular film titled ''Stand and Deliver'' 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 administration, which he felt was geared more towards sports than academics. 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.^[5]
The legacy of Jaime Escalante can still 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.^[5]
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.^[8]

Sports

The school colors are crimson, white, and blue.
The school 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^[9]. Garfield has the following record in the Classic:

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.^[14]

Notable Alumni

Academia

★ Gonzalez, Alexander — President of California State University, Sacramento

★ Marquez, Roy E. — "Stand and Deliver" student and current Garfield math and computer science teacher^[15]

Arts & Literature

★ Almaraz, Carlos — Artist

★ Gamboa, Harry Jr. — Artist and essayist

★ Valdez, Patssi — Artist^[16]

★ Viramontes, Maria Helena — Fiction writer

Entertainment

★ Davitian, Ken - Actor, best known as Azamat Bagatov from ^[17]

★ Hidalgo, David — Member of the band Los Lobos

★ Lozano, Conrad — Member of the band Los Lobos

★ Mencia, Carlos — Comedian and host of Comedy Central's "Mind of Mencia"

★ Rosas, Cesar — Member of the band Los Lobos

Sports

★ De la Hoya, Oscar — Olympic gold medalist and professional boxer

Notes

1. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/05/17/in_school_latinos_find_fewer_resources_ethnic_isolation?mode=PF
2. http://search.lausd.k12.ca.us/cgi-bin/fccgi.exe?w3exec=enroll3&which=8679
3. http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/lausd/offices/bulletins/8679_cst.pdf
4. http://www.academicdecathlon.org/scores.htm
5.
6.
7.
8.
The Complete List of the 1,000 Top U.S. Schools

9. http://www.nflhs.com/StateStories.aspx?id=8715&state=GJ
10. http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-spw-hsfbgarfield4nov04,1,201416.story?coll=la-headlines-sports&ctrack=1&cset=true
11. http://www.nflhs.com/StateStories.aspx?id=8715&state=GJ
12. http://archive.maxpreps.com/FanPages/Sports/Football/Common/Team.asp?TeamID={DE036292-2079-4DDA-AC9B-5E92FF9B8DBE}&setTeamType=3&setSeason={34E61A38-E781-4559-AD3B-975471A36E45}&setAffiliate=LAS
13. http://www.harvardindependent.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleID=8287
14. Fire destroys auditorium at Garfield High

15. http://www.nea.org/neatoday/0301/learning.html
16. http://www.chicano-art-life.com/pr_text/Artist_Bios_Visions.doc
17. http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/cl-ca-davitian25feb25,0,611581.story?coll=cl-movies

External links

★ New Garfield High School homepage

★ Garfield High School homepage

★ Garfield High School Leadership website

★ Garfield High School Alumni Foundation website