Highland High School (Bakersfield, California)
Encyclopedia
Highland provides technology-based instruction across the curriculum
Curriculum
See also Syllabus.In formal education, a curriculum is the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course, referring to the course of deeds and experiences through which children grow to become mature adults...

. Highland just completed its sixth year of a full six year term of accreditation and will be visited this year. Advanced Placement (AP) and Honors classes are offered for juniors and seniors in English, calculus, statistics, math analysis, advanced algebra
Algebra
Algebra is the branch of mathematics concerning the study of the rules of operations and relations, and the constructions and concepts arising from them, including terms, polynomials, equations and algebraic structures...

, Spanish, U.S. History, government/economics, chemistry, and physics. The school offers a strong college preparatory program which includes four years of English, five years of mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

 through calculus
Calculus
Calculus is a branch of mathematics focused on limits, functions, derivatives, integrals, and infinite series. This subject constitutes a major part of modern mathematics education. It has two major branches, differential calculus and integral calculus, which are related by the fundamental theorem...

, four years of Spanish and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, three years of social studies including world civilizations, U.S. history, U.S. government, and economics, and three years of science chosen from biology, earth science, chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

, and physics.

Approximately 10 percent of Highland's graduates go directly to a four-year college or university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...

 with an additional 40 percent attending community and technical colleges. The fine arts department provides a wide variety of enrichment courses including orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

, intermediate and advanced band (Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble), five choir
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...

s, beginning, intermediate, and advanced arts/crafts, and beginning and advanced drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

. Forensics (public speaking) and journalism/ publications are taught through the English department. Students are highly encouraged to participate in extra-curricular activities and in athletics. Highland provides more than 30 clubs and 32 athletic teams. Highland has a very strong Academic Decathlon
Decathlon
The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word decathlon is of Greek origin . Events are held over two consecutive days and the winners are determined by the combined performance in all. Performance is judged on a points system in each event, not...

 team which typically places in the top five teams each year in the county competition and a highly competitive Science Bowl team that has won the regional competition and represented the region in the national competition several times. Highland's athletic teams are competitive. Highland's students are very active in community service
Community service
Community service is donated service or activity that is performed by someone or a group of people for the benefit of the public or its institutions....

, typically among the top schools in the highest percentage of eligible donors giving blood.

Highland High School, located in the northeast part of Bakersfield, serves a multi-cultural population of more than 2,000 students drawn from three distinct eastside neighborhoods, two of which are uniquely "island" areas outside the immediate school neighborhood from which Highland draws approximately 53% of its students. Career-technical education courses that are offered at the school include agriculture, computer applications and CAD/drafting. The CAD/drafting classes focus on architectural design, qualify for UC fine arts credit, and are articulated with Bakersfield College. Highland's drafting students compete each year in the California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 State Fair; the 2006 competition resulted in 8 student ribbons won and another 7 Honorable Mention awards given. Highland's agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

 program is outstanding and produced the state science project winner who will be one of eight semi-finalists who will present their projects at the national Future Farmers of America Conference in October. Highland's music programs are well-known throughout the county and state.

Highland is proud to be the county site for the deaf and hard-of-hearing program and now includes five periods of elective classes in American Sign Language
American Sign Language
American Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...

 (ASL) for its students. Highland offers a variety of programs including Special Education
Special education
Special education is the education of students with special needs in a way that addresses the students' individual differences and needs. Ideally, this process involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials,...

, Title One, English Learner, Migrant PASS, Independent Study, and Work Experience. Literacy classes are offered to incoming freshmen whose skills need to be strongly supported for improved academic success and supplemental classes in English and math are offered to accommodate students who have not passed the California High School Exit Exam
California High School Exit Exam
The California High School Exit Exam is a requirement for high school graduation in the state of California, created by the California Department of Education to improve the academic performance of California high school students, and especially of high school graduates, in the areas of reading,...

 (CAHSEE).

Notable alumni

  • Jonathan Davis
    Jonathan Davis
    Jonathan Houseman Davis is the lead vocalist and frontman for the nu metal band Korn. Davis was ranked 16th on Hit Parader 's list of "Heavy Metal's All-Time Top 100 Vocalists".-Early life:...

     - Lead singer of Korn
    Korn
    Korn is an American nu metal band from Bakersfield, California, formed in 1993. The current band line up includes four members: Jonathan Davis, James "Munky" Shaffer, Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu, and Ray Luzier. The band was formed as an expansion of L.A.P.D.The band released their first demo album,...

    .
  • Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu - Bassist of Korn.
  • Derek Mears
    Derek Mears
    Derek Mears is an American actor and stuntman, best known for his role as Jason Voorhees in the reboot of Friday the 13th.-Early life:...

     - Actor
  • Kris Kohls
    Kris Kohls
    Kris Kohls is an american rock drummer known as member of the band Adema.In his early life Kris joined several bands , a five piece set drummer, Kris develop many skills of drumming during the 90's. He and other 4 other musicians made the band Adema in the early 2000 who was quickly signed with...

     - Drummer of Adema
    Adema
    -2003–2004: Unstable, Mark Chavez's and Mike Ransom's departure:Adema's second album, Unstable, was released by Arista in August 2003. It was produced by Howard Benson, whose credits also include producing albums with P.O.D., Hoobastank and Cold....

    .

External links

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